JULEN LOPETEGUI: A RECORD-BREAKING CENTENARY AS SEVILLA FC MANAGER

13/04/2021

Sevilla FC's coach has won three times as many games as he has drawn or lost, and has lifted a UEFA Europa League in his first one-hundred matches

Sixty. It could be any old number, without any meaning. But not this time. Sixty is the number of matches that Julen Lopetegui has won as Sevilla FC coach after managing his one-hundredth game last night away to RC Celta Vigo. The hard-fought win, which showed the determination of the group, cemented Sevilla's place further in the top four as they now sit fourteen points ahead of Real Sociedad, their closest rival who they play in their next match.

Lopetegui's brilliant stats, with twenty-one draws and nineteen defeats in the remaining games, puts him as the Sevilla FC coach with the highest number of wins in his first one-hundred matches since the Civil War. Manolo Jiménez registered one less, 59, while Juande Ramos picked up 57 wins in 100 matches. The goal difference stands at 157 scored to 87 conceded, with 48 clean sheets - almost a clean sheet every two games.

Lopetegui has 38 wins in La Liga: 131 points from 68 matches

Breaking it down into competitions, Lopetegui has managed 68 games in La Liga, twenty-one in European competitions and eleven in the Copa del Rey. He has 38 wins in the league, thirteen between the UEFA Europa League and Champions League, and nine in the Cup. With the win against Celta Vigo, Lopetegui's Sevilla have won 131 points from 68 games: 70 last season, and they sit on 61 this season with eight matches still to play. The Basque coach is also the Sevilla manager with the best points-per-game average in La Liga with 2.029, beating Juande Ramos' previous record of 1.84.

In this magnificent centenary, in which he is unbeaten in 81% of matches, the biggest joy came with the Europa League in Cologne. The trophy was the first piece of silverware in four years for the Club, and rounded off a unique competition of one-off knock-out matches in Germany due to the historic impact of COVID-19. The victory brought Sevilla FC to Budapest to contest the UEFA Super Cup against Bayern Munich, with the European Champions only coming away with the win in extra time. This year, the team reached the Champions League last-16 and were seconds away from contesting a Copa del Rey final.