Sevilla v Zenit background

Sevilla FC will be eager for a repeat performance in the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals as they take on FC Zenit for the second time at this stage of the competition.
 
 Previous meetings
• The sides have met in four previous European games, leaving both sides with the record W1 D2 L1. Three of those encounters came during Sevilla's triumphant 2005/06 UEFA Cup campaign, when Juande Ramos's team lost 2-1 away to Vlastimil Petržela's Zenit in the group stage then beat the Russian side 5-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.

• The lineups for their only previous encounter in Seville, a 4-1 win for Ramos's side on 30 March 2006 in which Erik Hagen and Andrey Arshavin were dismissed, were:
 Sevilla: Palop, Navarro*, Castedo, Escudé, Saviola, Jordi López (Kepa 80), Renato, Kanouté, Adriano, Martí (Maresca 75), Sales (Puerta 63).
 Zenit: Malafeev*, Radimov, Škrtel, Križanac, Širl (Mareš 75), Arshavin*, Kerzhakov*, Hagen, Sumulikoski (Gorshkov 88), Denisov (Spivak 28), Anyukov.
*registered to play in this season's quarter-finals
 
 Form guide
• Sevilla's record at home against Russian sides is W3 D0 L1. The wins were all in the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League, with the lone defeat coming in the UEFA Champions League.

• Zenit have won only twice in 14 encounters with Spanish sides, and are without a victory in their last seven games against Liga opponents. They have lost all six of their previous games in Spain.

• Sevilla have lifted this trophy every time they have made it to the last eight. Zenit also won the competition the last time they reached this stage, in 2007/08.

• Sevilla are on a seven-game European winning streak at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuan, which began in last season's quarter-finals.

• Zenit have gone 19 games without a draw on the road in Europe (W8 L11) since being held 0-0 at FC Porto in a December 2011 UEFA Champions League group stage game. They have not drawn in 12 away games in this competition (W5 L7) since their game at FC Bayern München in the 2007/08 semis finished 1-1.
 
 Trivia and links
• Sevilla (2006, 2007, 2014) and Zenit (2008) are two of three former UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League winners left in the competition.

• Zenit are the only side of the eight that entered the UEFA Europa League round of 32 from this season's UEFA Champions League group stage to have made it this far.

• Zenit's all-time top scorer Aleksandr Kerzhakov played for Sevilla from 2007–08.

• Sevilla goalkeeper Beto and Zenit forward Hulk were team-mates at FC Porto from 2009–12, winning the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League under current Zenit coach André Villas-Boas.

• Zenit boast Spanish talent in the form of midfielder Javi García, while Ezequiel Garay (Real Madrid CF, Real Racing Club) and José Rondon (UD Las Palmas, Málaga CF) both have Liga experience.

• Sevilla coach Unai Emery knows Russian football from his time at FC Spartak Moskva in 2012, while centre-back Nicolás Pareja played for the same side from 2010–13.

• Daniel Carriço can become a stand-alone UEFA Europa League record holder in the quarter-finals, the Sevilla man having matched Óscar Cardozo's record of 44 appearances in the competition (group stage to final) in the round of 16.

• This year's UEFA Europa League final is in Warsaw, and Sevilla's Grzegorz Krychowiak is one of three Polish players who still have a chance of playing in the decider in their home country, along with Łukasz Teodorczyk (FC Dynamo Kyiv) and Oskar Zawada (VfL Wolfsburg).
 
 The coaches
• Sevilla boss since January 2013, one-time midfielder Unai Emery switched from playing to coaching at Lorca Deportiva CF. Having led UD Almería to the top tier, he coached Valencia CF from 2008 to 2012, with his side regular European contenders during that spell.

• Having joined Porto's coaching department in his teens after a debate with the club's then coach Sir Bobby Robson, Zenit's André Villas-Boas assisted José Mourinho and spent a season in charge at A. Académica de Coimbra before winning a Liga, Portuguese Cup and UEFA Europa League treble with Porto in 2010/11. He then coached Chelsea FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC, taking over at Zenit in March 2014.

• Emery (Sevilla 2014) and Villas Boas (Porto 2011) are among three coaches in the quarter-finals who have won the UEFA Europa League since the competition took on its current incarnation, along with Napoli's Rafael Benítez (Chelsea FC 2013).