The first step towards glory for Sevilla and Valencia

The European football season is reaching its climax and the UEFA Europa League is certainly living up to expectations. Sevilla FC and Valencia CF will provide one of the semi-finals of the European competition on Thursday when they square off in the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán stadium at 21:05. Although this will be the first clash between the two teams in UEFA competition, they have met as many as 207 times in Spanish competition and Valencia have the upper hand, having won 95 to the Andalusians’ 77.

The home side, a two-time UEFA Cup winner, is still yet to lose a two-leg semi-final in a UEFA competition and will therefore be bidding to extend that run. "We have to forget about the Liga BBVA here. We believe in the strength of both teams and it will be a difficult tie against a great Valencia side", stated Unai Emery, Sevilla’s coach.

For their part, Valencia have reached this stage of the competition for the second time in three years, having fallen to Club Atlético de Madrid in the 2011/12 season. Juan Antonio Pizzi, coach of the ché, has called up all his players for the trip to Sevilla, although Víctor Ruiz and Ricardo Costa are both injured. In addition, Philippe Senderos and Diego Alves’ availability will be in doubt until the last minute.