Europa League 2019–20 Final Preview — Sevilla vs Inter Milan

At the Stadio Città di Arezzo, when Antonio Conte took his first coaching job as the assistant to Luigi de Canio in 2005, the Italian would have never thought that it would take 15 years for him to reach a final of an European competition.

Conte has managed some really top teams in his career — the invincible Juventus were built by him, he oversaw a title winning campaign in his first season at Chelsea in England and of course, the Italian national team.

Now he finds himself in the Europa League final with another Italian giant — Internazionale.

Unfortunately, the Italian Godfather, who is a first time finalist in Europe, finds himself playing a team which is probably the most successful side in the competition in recent times — Sevilla.

Sevilla have won the Europa League 3 times in the last 6 seasons — that’s probably an unmatchable point on their resumes. But this calendar year, the Spanish club have outdone other giants of the game in something else too. The La Liga side are unbeaten since February in all competitions — which takes their undefeated streak to well above 6 months.

As the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne gets ready to host the finale of Europe’s second-most important competition, let’s take a look at the detailed preview of Sevilla vs Inter Milan.

Road to the final

Sevilla holds the merit of the team which had the roughest path to the final, amongst the two teams, for sure. The Spanish side surely had to outclass some of the biggest names in the continent to make it to the last two teams standing.

It all started with Roma in the round of 16, but with the second leg being in Spain, Sevilla were tipped to be the favourites to progress. With the Spartans from Rome being outnumbered as they were reduced to 10-men, Sevilla cruised to a 2–0 victory at home to book their tickets to Germany.

The quarter-finals brought in an unexpected and new name to the tournament’s later stages. Wolverhampton Wanderers from England who had an over-achieving campaign in the Premier League were ready to take it to the wire against Sevilla. And the Englishmen were successful just for Sevilla to scrape out a 1–0 victory on neutral soil.

Coming into the last four of the competition, it was the first time when Sevilla were going into the fixture as the favourites to lose the tie. Something they were not used to. Manchester United awaited their La Liga counterparts as the most successful English side in the history were desperate to clinch a trophy after lacklustre years.

United opened the scoring with a penalty by Bruno Fernandes, but Sevilla were quick to react as the Spaniards equalized on the counter. A well-built attack from the right wing and some help from the United back-line’s mistakes meant that Sevilla could finish the game 2–1 and make their 7th final in the last 10 years.

Inter Milan, on the contrary, had an arguably easy route to the finale. Their experience against Spanish teams could come handy against Sevilla on Friday, as they totally outclassed Getafe in the round of 16 in Milan.

Their quarter-final was the toughest game of their European season as they faced Bayer Leverkusen in the latter’s home soil in Germany. The Leverkusen army fuelled by impressive young talent in their ranks gave Inter a tough time, but the experience of the Inter squad proved to be the difference as the blue half of Milan made it to the semi-final.

The semi-final was a cakewalk for the Italians after their limits being tested by Leverkusen a week before. Shakhtar Donestk proved to be dream opponents for Antonio Conte’s men as Inter Milan thrashed them 5–0 and signalled their intents for winning the competition.

Significant team rotations and absentees for the final

There is not doubt Sevilla manager Julen Lopetegui has some tough decisions to make before the final. But not all decisions are bad headaches. Luuk De Jong who scored the winning goal against Manchester United after coming off the bench will be aching to start this game.

But the Dutch striker has rarely started over first team forward Youssef En-Nesyri and Lopetegui will have to really take a big decision about who starts this biggest game of their season.

Ever Banega, who is an ex-Inter Milan player, leaves the club after this game and will be aching to get on the score-sheet for his current club in the last match for them.

Inter Milan have no absentees apart from a big name in Alexis Sanchez. The Chilean picked up an injury in training recently and so didn’t feature in the semi-final rout of Shakhtar. But with the first team of Inter in top form, there is no doubt Conte will have Sanchez on the bench for the final — expecting a super substitution performance by the ex-Manchester United personnel.

Talking Tactics

Sevilla have been a top side for the major part of this season. But evidently their goals in the games against the big sides have always come due to them exploiting the defensive issues of the opposition. With Inter Milan, the Spanish team won’t have the luck because Antonio Conte’s side is a defensive masterclass.

Another talking point in the game would be the Sevilla’s full-backs who are their charm. This could be the turning point for them as Inter play a very high line on the wings due to their 3-man defence. But, history has been evident, especially with Antonio Conte’s time with Chelsea that the Italian manager is extremely good against teams which play on the flanks.

But it all comes down to the battle of the night. Inter’s Romelu Lukaku and Sevilla’s Diego Carlos. The Sevilla centre-back has conceded a penalty in each of his last two games. On Friday, he comes up against Lukaku who is known for rattling the defenders with his physical strength and uses his physique a lot to win one-on-one battles in the box.

Overall, Inter look too strong for Europa League’s most successful side.

Prediction

With football’s ever-growing unpredictability, it’s harder than ever to predict the winner, especially in the final of a competition. But facts and data do give an overview.

Considering all the pros and cons, it’s Inter Milan who shall come on top in this one. It will be amazingly tough for Sevilla to score in this game as their reliability on causing forced defensive errors may not work against this Italian side.

On the other end of the pitch, Lautaro Martinez and the man in the the spotlight, Romelu Lukaku will be a constant menace on the pitch for the Sevilla defence. There is an extremely high probability that Inter lift the Europa League trophy and take the cup to the Italian capital — and in the process, save Antonio Conte’s job.