Europa League final preview: Can Inter Milan upstage Europa League specialists Sevilla?

Inter Milan despite being eliminated from the UEFA Champions League to the Europa League now have a shot at landing a European trophy having waited for 10 years to even get to another European final, and in their way are five-times winner, Sevilla.

The La Liga club have lifted the trophy five times and are aiming for a record-extending sixth title.

Inter are among the sides in joint-second place on three wins and are aiming for their fourth. They last won the UEFA Cup in the 1997/98 season and have not featured in a European final since their 2009/10 Champions League victory.

The two managers, however, are both managing in their first major European final and it’s left to be seen who would come out on top.

Antonio Conte will head into the Europa League final aiming to win a major trophy in his first season in charge of Inter Milan and extend the barren spell of his Sevilla rival Julen Lopetegui.

Conte led Juventus to three successive Serie A titles followed by the 2016/17 Premier League title and 2018 FA Cup with Chelsea, while Lopetegui has been unable to claim a single honour at senior level as a coach.

The former goalkeeper, while managing FC Porto of Portugal oversaw the longest trophy-less spell of the Portuguese outfit from 2014 and 2016 before taking charge of Spain, where he was dismissed a week before the 2018 World Cup having steered his country to the finals.

Lopetegui left the Spain job and made way for Fernando Hierro after it was announced he would be taking over at Real Madrid in August 2018. He was sacked in October that year after suffering a 5-1 La Liga thrashing by Barcelona.

Related:

• Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez both score twice each in Shakhtar’s Europa League destruction
• Sevilla wrecks Manchester United’s Europa League title hopes

The current season finally brought some joy as he guided Sevilla to a top-four finish in La Liga, and also reached the Europa League final with a combative side whose work rate exceeds its talent.

They demonstrated their strong spirits against Manchester United in the semi-finals with a 2-1 comeback win, taking advantage of some sloppy defending to extend their unbeaten run to 20 games in all competitions – the longest such run in the club’s history.

The final of this year’s Europa final is a joy to behold as Inter are also in devastating form. They saw off semi-final opponents Shakhtar Donetsk with an emphatic 5-0 win, and are also unbeaten in 11 games, winning the last six in all competitions and finishing just a point behind Juventus in Serie A.

Let’s take a look at how both teams made it through to the final of this year’s Europa League final.

Sevilla’s route to the final

Team news

Sevilla have to be wary of fitness of the team’s top scorer Ocampos. The Argentinian was substituted with a knee problem against Manchester United and will face a race to be fit for Friday’s final.

Inter could also be without Sanchez after he was an unused substitute against Shakhtar Donetsk with a strained right hamstring.

Stats and facts heading into the match (backed by Opta)

• This is the first ever European meeting between Sevilla and Inter – it is the sixth time in 11 seasons of the UEFA Europa League that the two teams in the final are meeting for the first time ever in a European competition, with the last occasion the 2015-16 final, when Sevilla beat Liverpool 3-1.
• Inter have won all five of their UEFA Europa League matches this season and are looking to win six major UEFA European matches in a row for only the second time (six between December 2009 and April 2010).
• Sevilla have never lost a single game knockout match (not played over two legs) in UEFA Cup/Europa League history (P8 W6 D2), winning each of their last five such matches, including two finals.
• Sevilla are currently enjoying their longest unbeaten run across all competitions in the club’s history (P20 W11 D9); among La Liga clubs, only Real Madrid have had a longer unbeaten run this season (21 games between October and February).
• Inter striker Romelu Lukaku has scored in each of his last seven European matches for Inter, scoring eight times and assisting four goals in those matches too. In all competitions, Lukaku has scored 33 goals this season, the most by an Inter player since Samuel Eto’o scored 37 in 2010-11.
• In the semi-final, Suso and Luuk de Jong became the 10th and 11th different scorers for Sevilla in this season’s UEFA Europa League – excluding own goals, only Manchester United (12) have had more different scorers.

Prediction

Sevilla 1-3 Inter Milan