UEFA Cup – Sevilla among the European greats

Sevilla v Espanyol, UEFA Cup Final 2007, Glasgow, Scotland

Ozren Podnar

It took only two seasons for Sevilla and their coach Juande Ramos to enter the European elite and add an important chapter to soccer history books.

Two consecutive UEFA Cups and one Supercup in between are impressive feats, although today's UEFA Cup is a dilluted affair compared to the competition in the seventies and eighties, or even to the old Intercity Fairs' Cup, the predecessor of today's UEFA Cup.

Only Real Madrid had won the UEFA Cup twice in a row, in 1985 and 1986; Barcelona and Valencia did the same in the early editions of the Fairs' Cup.

The finals played at the mythical Hampden Park in Glasgow was a spectacular affair, with two clubs battling it out with honesty and pride. Even the losers on the night, Espanyol, delighted their own fans so much that they welcomed them back in Barcelona in their thousands shouting "campeones, campeones".

A Lottery: 14th finals decided from the spot

By beating Espanyol, Sevilla became the 13th team to win a European trophy on penalties in the 14th final game decided in that fashion; Liverpool did it twice, in 1984 and 2005.

Espanyol on the other hand became the second team to lose a final twice from the spot. The Barcelona team lost the finals of the same competition in 1988 to Bayer Leverkusen. Arsenal is the only other club to have fallen twice as a victim of poor penalty shooting: they suffered a defeat in the 1980 Cup Winners' Cup finals to Valencia and 20 years later in the UEFA Cup finals to Galatasaray.

Shootouts in finals

Champions' League/Cup

1984 Liverpool – Roma 1-1 (4-2)
1986 Steaua – Barcelona 0-0 (2-0)
1988 PSV Eindhoven – Benfica 0:0 (6-5)
1991 Red Star – Marseille 0:0 (5-3)
1996 Juventus – Ajax 1-1 (4-2)
2001 Bayern – Valencia 1-1 (5-4)
2003 Milan – Juventus 0-0 (3-2)
2005 Liverpool – Milan 3-3 (3-2)

Cup Winners' Cup

1980 Valencia – Arsenal 0-0 (5-4)
UEFA/Fairs' Cup
1984 Tottenham – Anderlecht 1-1, 1-1 (4-3)
1988 Bayer – Espanyol 0-3, 3-0 (3-2)
1997 Schalke – Inter 1-0, 0-1 (4-1)
2000 Galatasaray – Arsenal 0-0 (4-1)
2007 Sevilla – Espanyol 2-2 (3-1)

Note: penalty goals in brackets

Sevilla 2-2 Espanyol, 3-1 (penalties)

Referee: Busacca (Switzerland)
Goals: 1-0 Adriano (18), 1-1 Riera (27), 2-1 Kanouté (105), 2-2 Jonatas (116)
Penalty shootout: Kanouté, Dragutinovic and Puerta scored for Sevilla; Pandiani scored
for Espanyol. Palop saved shots from Luis García, Jonatas and Torrejón
Sevilla: Palop, Javi Navarro, Daniel, Adriano (min. 76 Renato), Poulsen, Luis Fabiano (min. 64 Kerzhakov), Kanouté, Puerta, Marti, Dragutinovic, Maresca (min 46 Jesús Navas)
Espanyol: Iraizoz, David García, Zabaleta, De la Pena (min 87 Jonatas.), Luis García, Riera, Rufete (min. 56. Pandiani), Torrejón, Jarque, Moisés, Tamudo (min. 73 Lacruz)

Ozren Podnar

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