Sevilla v Lazio background

Three-time UEFA Europa League winners Sevilla hold the advantage halfway through this round of 32 tie against Lazio and will look to safeguard their first-leg 1-0 win in Rome with another strong showing in front of their own fans at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, where they have won all six European fixtures this term.

• Sevilla had to wait until matchday six to seal their place in the knockout phase. They were beaten at both Krasnodar and Standard Liège but defeated the Russian side 3-0 at home in their final game to finish above them at the top of Group J on the head-to-head rule.

• Lazio reached the round of 32 for the sixth time in eight seasons as runners-up in Group H, finishing with nine points, half as many as section winners Eintracht Frankfurt. The Italian club did, however, qualify two matchdays in advance of Sevilla.

Previous meetings
• Lazio succumbed to a third successive defeat for only the second time in their lengthy UEFA Europa League history as a close-range 22nd-minute strike from Sevilla striker Wissam Ben Yedder – his sixth European goal this season – decided the outcome at the Stadio Olimpico.

• Despite both clubs' wealth of European experience, their paths had never crossed in UEFA competition until the first leg.

• Sevilla's record against Italian opposition is W4 D2 L5. At home it is W2 D1 L1, and they had not conceded to a Serie A side in Seville until Juventus, the most recent visitors, won 3-1 there in the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League group stage.

• Lazio have won just five of their 19 matches against Spanish clubs, losing seven of eight in Spain and all five there since they overcame Mallorca 2-1 in the last ever UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final at Birmingham's Villa Park 20 years ago. Their solitary win on Spanish soil came in the semi-finals of the 1997/98 UEFA Cup – 1-0 at Atlético Madrid (also the aggregate score) – though it was at Atlético that they lost on their most recent trip to Spain, going down 0-1 (and 1-4 on aggregate) in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League round of 32.

Form guide
Sevilla
• Although they were UEFA Champions League quarter-finalists last term, seventh place in Spain's Liga meant that Sevilla's first match back in the UEFA Europa League since their 2016 final success against Liverpool was in the second qualifying round. They went on to win six of out six in qualifying, beating Újpest, Žalgiris Vilnius and Sigma Olomouc home and away.

• Sevilla topped Group J with 12 points, scoring 18 goals – the most of any of the 48 clubs in the group stage, with 14 coming at home. Their 5-1 matchday one win against Standard was the first time they had scored more than four goals at home in a European match; they then beat Akhisar 6-0 on matchday three.

• This is Sevilla's fifth appearance in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase. They lost the first of their four round of 32 ties, on away goals to Porto in 2010/11 (1-2 home, 1-0 away), but came through the next three en route to winning the competition three times in a row from 2013/14 to 2015/16 – against, respectively, Maribor (2-2 away, 2-1 home), Borussia Mönchengladbach (1-0 home, 3-2 away) and Molde (3-0 home, 0-1 away).

• Sevilla have won all six European home games this season, scoring 22 goals and conceding just one, which has extended to 17 matches their winning run at home to non-Spanish opposition in the UEFA Europa League, qualifying included. Their last two home defeats in this competition have both been to fellow Liga sides; the last non-Spanish team to deny them victory at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán were Estoril, who drew 1-1 in the 2013/14 group stage.

• Sevilla have been victorious in seven out of seven UEFA competition ties when they have won the first leg away, the latest instance having come in this season's play-offs, when they also won 1-0 at Sigma Olomouc before sealing their progress into the group stage with a 3-0 victory in Seville.

Lazio
• Edged into fifth place in last season's Serie A by Internazionale on the final day, Lazio are participating in the UEFA Europa League for the seventh time, their best performances having been when they reached the quarter-finals in 2012/13 and 2017/18.

• The Rome side have played more games in the competition (63) than any other Italian club, with only Villarreal (69 matches) and Salzburg (67) having been more active. Including this season, their last six UEFA Europa League group stage participations have all been successful after failure in the first.

• Lazio have won three of their five UEFA Europa League round of 32 ties. The defeat by Atlético in 2011/12 preceded a victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2012/13 (3-3 away, 2-0 home), but the following season brought another elimination, by Bulgaria's Ludogorets (0-1 home, 3-3 away), before successes in 2015/16 against Galatasaray (1-1 away, 3-1 home) and last term against FCSB (0-1 away, 5-1 home). The Rome club have yet to register an away win in the round of 32.

• Runners-up to Inter in the 1997/98 UEFA Cup, Lazio had three wins and three losses on the road in last season's UEFA Europa League, the matchday six defeat at Zulte Waregem ending the club's competition record-equalling run of 11 away games unbeaten (W4 D7) that had lasted since October 2013. They have now lost three of their last four matches in this competition outside Rome as well as all of their last three, home and away. They have never suffered four successive UEFA Europa League defeats.

• Lazio have lost the first home leg of a UEFA tie only twice previously, both times in the UEFA Europa League round of 32 – against Atlético in 2011/12 and Ludogorets – also after a 0-1 defeat in Rome – in 2013/14.

UEFA Europa League squad changes
• Sevilla
In: Maximilian Wöber, Munir El Haddadi, Marko Rog, Bryan Gil
Out: Luis Muriel, Lucho, Nolito, Borja Lasso

• Lazio
In: Patric, Rômulo
Out: Dušan Basta, Martín Cáceres, Alessandro Murgia, Edoardo Rezzi, Alessandro Rossi

Links and trivia 
• Sevilla's Simon Kjær played for Roma in 2011/12, and was red-carded in his only Eternal City derby. Maxime Gonalons is on loan to Sevilla from the Giallorossi.

• Franco Vázquez was with Palermo from 2012–16 before joining Sevilla, whereas Éver Banega split his two spells in Seville with a 2016/17 season at Internazionale, scoring against Lazio in a 3-0 home win in December 2016. André Silva is on loan to Sevilla from AC Milan.

• Lazio's attacking midfielder Luis Alberto, an Andalusian native, was brought through Sevilla's youth system and played seven Liga games for the first team between 2010 and 2012.

• Joaquín Correa (2016–18) and Ciro Immobile (2015) have also represented Sevilla, while Riza Durmisi played for city rivals Betis between 2016 and 2018, scoring in a 2-1 derby defeat in February 2017.

• Correa is an Argentina team-mate of Banega and Gabriel Mercado, while Kjær and Durmisi are Danish internationals.

• Daniel Carriço and Felipe Caicedo played together briefly at Sporting CP in 2009/10.

• Sevilla's three January newcomers all played in this season's UEFA Champions League group stage – Maximilian Wöber for Ajax, Munir El Haddadi for Barcelona and Marko Rog for Napoli.

• Carriço appeared in five of Sevilla's group games and has now stretched his all-time appearance record in the UEFA Europa League proper to 59 matches, six more than any other player.

• Sevilla are one of only two clubs still involved to have won the UEFA Europa League, alongside 2012/13 winners Chelsea. There are eight others, however, who have lifted the trophy in its previous guise as the UEFA Cup.

• Sevilla need one more goal to become the fifth side to score 100 in the UEFA Europa League, group stage to final.

Penalty shoot-outs
• Sevilla's record in six UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W5 L1:
4-3 v PAOK, 1990/91 UEFA Cup first round
3-1 v Espanyol, 2006/07 UEFA Cup final
2-3 v Fenerbahçe, 2007/08 UEFA Champions League round of 16
4-3 v Real Betis, 2013/14 UEFA Europa League round of 16
4-2 v Benfica, 2013/14 UEFA Europa League final
5-4 v Athletic Club, 2015/16 UEFA Europa League quarter-final

• Lazio have yet to feature in a UEFA penalty shoot-out.

The coaches
• Pablo Machín was appointed by Sevilla as their new head coach on a two-year contract in May 2018 – a reward for four progressive campaigns at the helm of Catalan outfit Girona, whom he guided into the Spanish top flight before exceeding expectations by leading them to a tenth-placed Liga finish in 2017/18. Forced to retire from playing at 23, he had a lengthy association with home-town club Numancia before joining Girona in 2014. This is his first season on the European stage.

• Lazio boss since April 2016, when he replaced Stefano Pioli, Simone Inzaghi represented the club as a forward between 1999 and 2010, winning the Italian double in his debut season and the Coppa Italia twice more in later years. The younger brother of fellow ex-Italian international Filippo Inzaghi, with whom he played at home-town outfit Piacenza, he began coaching Lazio's youth teams immediately after hanging up his boots. His first trophy as coach was the 2017 Italian Super Cup.