Sevilla vs West Ham: UEFA Europa League background, form guide, previous meetings

Sevilla's bid to win the UEFA Europa League for the fifth time – with this season's final taking place at their own stadium – continues with a testing round of 16 tie against English Premier League high fliers West Ham United.

• The Spanish side finished third in UEFA Champions League Group G during the autumn behind LOSC Lille and Salzburg, winning just one of their six matches and ending up with six points, before edging past Dinamo Zagreb in the UEFA Europa League knockout round play-offs (3-1 h, 0-1 a).

• West Ham were comfortable winners of UEFA Europa League Group H, clinching top spot with a game to spare on 13 points – three more than runners-up Dinamo Zagreb, who defeated them 1-0 in London on Matchday 6.

Previous meetings
• This is the clubs' first meeting in UEFA competition.

• Sevilla have played English sides on 19 previous occasions with the record W8 D6 L5. They are undefeated against opponents from England in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League (W5 D2), their last three fixtures having all brought single-tie victories – 3-1 against Liverpool in the 2016 final, and 1-0 against Wolverhampton Wanderers and 2-1 against Manchester United in the quarter-final and semi-final respectively of their triumphant 2019/20 campaign.

• Since then, however, Sevilla have faced Chelsea twice in the UEFA Champions League, drawing 0-0 away on Matchday 1 last season before going down 0-4 in Seville on Matchday 5 – the heaviest European home defeat in the club's history.

• West Ham have won their previous two European ties against Spanish opposition, both in the European Cup Winners' Cup. They beat Real Zaragoza 3-2 on aggregate in the semi-final of their triumphant 1964/65 campaign (2-1 h, 1-1 a) and Real Madrid Castilla 6-4 in the 1980/81 first round (1-3 a, 5-1 h).

Form guide
Sevilla
• Fourth in the Spanish Liga for the second successive season under coach Julen Lopetegui in 2020/21, Sevilla were runners-up in their UEFA Champions League group behind eventual winners Chelsea before bowing out in the round of 16 to Borussia Dortmund (2-3 h, 2-2 a).

• This season Sevilla's UEFA Champions League campaign ended after six matches. They opened up with draws against each of their Group G opponents – 1-1 at home to Salzburg and away to Wolfsburg and 0-0 in Lille – before losing 1-2 at home to the French champions on Matchday 4. A 2-0 home win against Wolfsburg kept them in the hunt going into Matchday 6, but a 1-0 defeat in Salzburg left them in third place.

• The Andalusian side are appearing in the UEFA Europa League round of 16 for a record sixth time. They have lifted the trophy on four of their previous six appearances – in 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 with Unai Emery as head coach and in 2019/20 under Lopetegui – as well as winning the UEFA Cup back-to-back in 2005/06 and 2006/07. Sevilla's only defeats in 24 UEFA Europa League knockout phase ties were on away goals against Porto in the 2010/11 round of 32 (1-2 h, 1-0 a) and after extra time against Slavia Praha in the 2018/19 round of 16 (2-2 h, 3-4 a).

• That 1-2 defeat by Porto 11 years ago was Sevilla's last at home to non-Spanish opposition in the UEFA Europa League, qualifying phase included. Since then their record in the competition at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán is W27 D5 L2, the two losses to fellow Liga sides Real Betis in the 2013/14 round of 16 and Athletic Club in the 2015/16 quarter-finals – though Sevilla won both ties on penalties.

West Ham
• A sixth-placed finish in the 2020/21 Premier League earned West Ham a first appearance in the group stage of a UEFA competition. On each of their last two continental campaigns, in 2015/16 and 2016/17, they were eliminated in the UEFA Europa League qualifying phase by Romanian club Astra Giurgiu.

• The East Londoners won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1964/65, beating 1860 München 2-0 in the Wembley final, and would reach the semi-finals, final and quarter-finals of that same competition over the next 16 years. The furthest they have previously gone in the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League was in 1999/2000, when, after qualifying as UEFA Intertoto Cup winners, they beat Osijek to reach the second round, where they lost to Steaua Bucureşti (0-2 a, 0-0 h). On their last UEFA Cup appearance, in 2006/07, they were beaten in the first round by Italian side Palermo (0-1 h, 0-3 a).

• This season David Moyes' side won their first three Group H matches without conceding – 2-0 away to Dinamo, 2-0 at home to Rapid Wien and 3-0 at home to Genk. They then dropped their first points in a 2-2 draw away to the Belgian side before wrapping up top spot with a 2-0 win in Vienna.

• West Ham were without a win in four European away fixtures (D1 L3) before defeating Dinamo in Zagreb on Matchday 1. The victory at Rapid on Matchday 5 was just the third for the London club in their last ten UEFA Europa League and UEFA Cup games outside England (D2 L5), though they have found the net in all of the last six, scoring twice in each of this season's three away fixtures.

UEFA Europa League squad changes
Sevilla
In: Jesús Corona (Porto), Nemanja Gudelj, Anthony Martial (Manchester United, loan)
Out: Suso, Erik Lamela, Óscar Rodríguez (Getafe, loan)

West Ham
In: None
Out: None

Links and trivia 
• Anthony Martial joined Sevilla on loan from Manchester United in January. He was a starter in the United side knocked out of this season's English League Cup by West Ham at Old Trafford in September (0-1), though his last game for the Manchester club before leaving for Sevilla was as a substitute in a 1-0 home win against the Hammers on 22 January.

• Several other Sevilla players have operated in the English Premier League:
Suso (Liverpool 2012/13)
Jesús Navas (Manchester City 2013–17)
Erik Lamela (Tottenham 2013–21)
Fernando (Manchester City 2014–17)
Rafa Mir (Wolves 2018–21, Nottingham Forest 2019/20, loan)

• Navas was a Premier League champion with Manchester City in 2013/14, also winning two League Cups, the second of them alongside Fernando in 2015/16.

• Martial, his Sevilla team-mate Jules Koundé and West Ham pair Alphonse Areola and Kurt Zouma have all been capped by France.

• West Ham midfielder Pablo Fornals is a current Spanish international who played in his homeland for Málaga (2015–17) and Villarreal (2017–19). Hammers goalkeeper Areola also had loan spells in Spain at Villarreal (2015/16) and Real Madrid (2019/20).

• Sevilla's Ivan Rakitić, who turns 34 on the day of the game, and West Ham's Nikola Vlašić were fellow Croatian internationals from 2017 to 2019.

• Hammers boss Moyes had a spell in Spain with Real Sociedad from November 2014 to November 2015. His one Liga game against Sevilla was a 4-3 home win on 22 February 2015.

• West Ham's Czech trio of Tomáš Souček, Vladimír Coufal and Alex Král all featured for the Slavia Praha side that eliminated Sevilla from the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League in the round of 16, Souček scoring a penalty in the second-leg 4-3 win in Prague.

• The Andalusian club are one of two former UEFA Europa League winners competing in the round of 16, alongside 2010/11 victors Porto. Three other participants – Bayer Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt and Galatasaray – have also, like Sevilla, lifted the UEFA Cup.

• Sevilla are competing in the UEFA Europa League round of 16 for a record sixth time. Six other clubs have reached this stage of the competition on five occasions – Valencia, Manchester United, Benfica, Zenit, Villarreal and Dynamo Kyiv.

• This is Sevilla's 42nd match in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase, which equals Benfica's competition record.

• West Ham were one of just two newcomers to the UEFA Europa League group stage in 2021/22, the other Danish champions Brøndby. Mid-term arrivals Barcelona have made it three debutants in this season's competition proper.