(Football news) Last season, Sevilla won their seventh Europa League title to return to the continent’s biggest tournament, while Les Sang et Or won the silver medal in Ligue 1, and the two teams will also play Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven for a knockout berth.
No matter how bad Sevilla’s La Liga season was in 2022-23, the hosts’ penchant for Europa League stardom remained strong, as Jose Luis Mendilibar led Los Palanganas to a record-extending seventh title in the competition with a penalty-shootout victory over Roma in a tense final.
Continental success was the perfect antidote to a disappointing 12th-place finish in the top league, although Sevilla had flirted with relegation at one point before Mendilibar steadyed the ship, but another cellar battle could be on the cards this season due to their awful start.
Along with losing to Manchester City in the UEFA Super Cup – in a match where their previous penalty prowess eluded them – Sevilla were defeated in each of their first three La Liga games of the new season against Valencia, Alaves, and Girona, but a Sergio Ramos homecoming finally helped Los Palanganas shut down Las Palmas last time out.
The return of Ramos to the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan was not well received by the entire Sevilla crowd, but on the four-time Champions League winner’s second appearance for the club, Mendilibar’s side held off Las Palmas and won 1-0 courtesy to a second-half Dodi Lukebakio strike.
Sevilla could and arguably should have won by a larger margin on the day, as Las Palmas goalkeeper Alvaro Valles miraculously prevented a Youssef En-Nesyri strike from crossing the line, but a first competitive victory in two months is just what the doctor ordered for a Palanganas side that has won only two of their last 14 Champions League games.
Indeed, Sevilla exited the 2021-22 and 2022-23 group stages with just one win each, but both came at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan, where Lens might become Los Palanganas’ next victims barring a swift turnaround in fortunes.
Franck Haise has taken Lens from a Ligue 2 team to a Champions League contender in just three years, as Les Sang et Or came within one point of title glory in the 2022-23 Ligue 1 season, only to succumb to Paris Saint-Germain’s superiority again.
Lens, on the other hand, may forget about any future European trips in the midst of their current dilemma, as after losing last season’s top scorer Lois Openda to RB Leipzig and midfield master Seko Fofana to Al-Nassr, Les Sang et Or are on a one-way road back to Ligue 2.
Haise’s men enjoyed 75% of the ball and 31 shots against Metz at the weekend, but they couldn’t break down an immovable Alexandre Oukidja and succumbed to a 1-0 defeat courtesy of Joel Asoro’s finish, dropping them to the foot of the table with just one point from their first five games.
Lens are not new to Europe, but their only two previous appearances in the Champions League, in 1998-99 and 2002-03, ended in the group stage, and Haise must find an immediate solution to their offensive and defensive issues, or risk overseeing another humiliating loss in his team’s first-ever competitive match against Sevilla.
Sevilla form in all competition
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RC Lens form in all competitions
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Also read: Bayern Munich set to play Manchester United in UCL 23-24
