Real Madrid won the first five European Cups, while Ajax and Bayern Munich won it three times in a row in the 1970s. No team has managed to retain the most important trophy in club football since Milan in 1990. In the Uefa Cup/Europa League, the only team to retain the trophy was Real Madrid in 1985 and 1986.
That is, apart from Sevilla. The Andalusians have twice retained the competition, first after winning it for the first time in 2006 with a convincing 4-0 victory over Middlesbrough in Eindhoven. They beat compatriots Espanyol a year later on penalties in Glasgow. Sevilla returned to the final for a third time in 2014, defeating Benfica on penalties in Turin. They retained the trophy with a 3-2 win last season against Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.
Four finals, four wins, two of them after penalties. Only Barcelona can match Sevilla's four wins in one competition in the last decade with their four European Cups, but Sevilla can make it five on Wednesday night when they play Liverpool in Basle.
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The venue, the second smallest to stage the final, isn’t ideal. With a capacity of 36,000 both finalists received only 9,000 tickets, with 50 per cent of capacity going to fans of neither clubs, mainly those who applied via the internet long before it was known who the finalists would be. Many of those fans were hopeful supporters of local side FC Basle, though they were defeated in the last 16 stage by Sevilla, the team that kills the Europa League dreams of any rival.
Sevilla have ridden their luck. They also needed penalties to overcome Athletic Bilbao this season, a season which they started in the Champions League after winning the Europa League last term, but they’re undeniably impressive in the latter tournament. After reaching the latest final with victory over Shakhtar Donetsk, the local sport paper Estadio Deportivo had the words ‘Rub your eyes and open them wide’.
This is a golden age for the club and Unai Emery, in charge for the last two successes, will join Giovanni Trapattoni as the second manager to have won the competition three times, the first to do it at one club.
Wednesday night, will be both finalists’ 15th game in Europe this season. Sevilla began resting players before the end of the season leading to a dip in results. They will be without he injured Krohn Deli and Jose Antonio Reyes, who has already won the competition three times, but Liverpool have more absences. Sakho is suspended for failing a drug test, while Can, Gomez, Henderson, Ings, Origi and Rossiter are all injured.
The three-time winners Liverpool have an impressive history in the competition themselves. Victors in 1973, 1976 and 2001, adding to their five European Cups, a record for a British club, they have enjoyed an epic run to Switzerland, eliminating their main rivals Manchester United and coming from 2-0 and 3-1 behind to beat Borussia Dortmund with a spectacular 4-3 comeback at Anfield.
They are better supported and have to travel half the distance of Sevilla fans so they will have more fans on the banks of the Rhine, with manager Jurgen Klopp initially encouraging them to travel without tickets, then being advised to take back such comments.
They also have Alberto Moreno, the former Sevilla full-back, who is looking forward to the biggest game in his life. Moreno, 23 claims that he wouldn’t celebrate a Liverpool goal against the team of “My house, my city, the club where I became a footballer ... but it’s a lie to say I want them to win the Europa League”.
Moreno joined Sevilla aged 10 and won the 2014 competition. The lifelong Sevilla fan is desperate to win it again with Liverpool, but he will be heading back to Sevilla either way after the game which will draw an end to the club season. He could be the only one celebrating his own defeat.
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