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SEVILLA RETURN TO RUSSIA

04/10/2018

With potential rotations in mind, Sevilla will play their first away game in the group stage against FK Krasnodar who see Machín's side as an interesting yardstick.

Europe keeps on getting tougher for Sevilla. Although it will be our eighth continental duel of the season so far, tonight's game comes with a higher demand, perhaps not in terms of what's at stake but certainly in terms of how the opponent will test us. It must be kept in account as well that the team has been working with a regular starting eleven that will most likely see changes tonight in the brand-new Krasnodar Stadium, which despite not being used during the past World Cup, is one of the country's best stadiums. In fact, the Spanish national team used Krasnodar's training facilities as their base during the World Club. Krasnodar are one of the top clubs in Russia despite barely being a decade old. The club came to the fore and joined the top teams as a result of their President, the businessmen Sergey Galitsky.

In fact, in only three years they earned promotion to the first division, the Russian Premier League, making their European debut in 14/15. Despite entering in the second qualifying round, they were not intimidated by big European teams and they managed to knock-out Real Sociedad to qualify for the group stages, where they finished third in a group of Wolfsburg, Everton and Lille. From then, they have never missed a Europa League campaign, with their best performance culminating in the quarter-finals against Celta Vigo two seasons ago. They met their match against Berizzo's team who almost reached the final, while they did not manage to reach the group stage last year after they were eliminated by Partizan Belgrade. Even so, they are a strong club who knows what they're capable of, they have put themselves amongst the best teams in Russia and now they want to show their ability in Europe.

Krasnodar were founded in 2008 and have competed every year in the Europa League since 14/15

They know that Sevilla may be a very good yardstick, given they are one of the top teams of this competition and one of the favourites to be there in Bakú. After Krasnodar's positive start with a win in Turkey, both team's lead Group J with three points. This is along with the good domestic work that Krasnodar are putting in, who are second in the Premier League and have won four back-to-back games, the last three without conceding. Their main players are the Swedish attacking midfielder Viktor Claesson, the Russian centre-midfielders Pavel Mamaev and Yuri Gazinskiy, as well as the Peruvian defensive midfielder Christian Cueva. They are coached by the young manager Murad Musayev, who has been in charge since last April and who was promoted from Krasnodar's youth team who played in the UEFA Youth League

Sevilla arrive to Russia, a country where they have played many times this century but in which they have only got one win, one against Lokomotiv Moscow in the season we won it in Eindhoven. The last match, about a year ago, resulted in a big defeat in Moscow against Quincy Promes' Spartak. Our confidence is different now and Sevilla can take a step towards the knock-out rounds, however, after many games with a practically unchanged starting eleven, it's likely Pablo Machín will make changes for this match and will give players a rest before the match against Celta Vigo on Sunday, the last match before a well-needed international break to recharge our batteries. With Daniel Carriço in Sevilla after many consecutive minutes on the pitch, the remaining changes will come from the same squad that has faced the last matches, with the introduction of Borja Lossa and Aleix Vidal, Gonalons, Amadou, Mercado and Escudero's injuries.

The Swede, Strombergsson, an international since 2011, will referee Krasnodar and Sevilla for the first time

Fortunately, it seems like the last two will return to action soon, but in the meantime the manager will have to keep trying to balance the players' fitness with being competitive out on the pitch. Furthermore, UEFA has designated a Swedish referee, Martin Strombergsson, an international since 2011 and who has never refereed either club. His last match refeering a Spanish team was in 15/16 in the Europa League play-off between Athletic Club and Zilnia in the New San Mamés, which ended in a 1-0 win for the Basque side.