THE EUROPA LEAGUE GETS SERIOUS IN THE RAMÓN SÁNCHEZ-PIZJUÁN

It's a massive night tonight in the Europa League with second place in La Liga coming up against sixth place in the Premier League. West Ham fans consider this to be one of the most important matches in their recent history, with their last European appearance coming in 1981. Sevilla FC will be tasked with ensuring they don't have happy memories of this campaign. The first leg sees the London side come to the Sánchez-Pizjuán, which hosts this year's final, and where the team have already dispatched Dinamo Zagreb 3-1. Lopetegui welcomes Martial back into the squad and Acuña is fit after some niggles against Alavés, but we are still missing some vital players in Montiel, Diego Carlos, Rekik, Fernando, Papu Gómez and the banned Delaney.

We have never played West Ham in our history, but we have shared some players with them. The very first was Ilie Dumitrescu who came to us on loan from Tottenham in the January of 1996. After returning to London, he would play the second half of the 1997 season in West Ham. The second is the famous Davor Šuker who played for the Hammers in the 00/01 season after a spell at Arsenal. Šuker was at the club at the same time as Frederic Kanouté, who would end up playing for Sevilla. Kepa Blanco's trajectory was the other way around - starting at Sevilla and ending up at West Ham. In 18/19, Samir Nasri had a brief spell in London after a two-year stay in Seville. The last player to play for both is Chicharito who came to Seville in 2019 after two seasons at West Ham.

This is West Ham's tenth European appearance, with the club winning the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1965 in their first campaign

While West Ham are enjoying a great season in the Premier League, one of the best leagues in the world, they do not have a large European pedigree. This is their tenth season in Europe. They made a spectacular European debut in 64/65 when they won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Beating Zaragoza in the semi-final, their first ever official match in Spain, before beating 1860 Munich at Wembley. The next year they would reach the semi-final and in 75/76 Anderlecht beat them in the final. They reached the quarters in 80/81 in their last appearance in the now defunct competition. Their last visit to Spain, before today's match, was against Real Madrid Castilla who finished runners up in the Spanish Cup, while West Ham were in the competition as FA Cup winners, despite playing in the second division.

They returned to Europe in the 99/00 season in the Intertoto Cup, winning it, and qualifying for the UEFA Cup. However, they would only make it past two rounds. With group stages now instated, it did not go to well for the Hammers. In 06/07, they fell to Palermo in the first round. In 15/16, Astra beat them in the first round - interestingly, the same team would beat them the very next year. This year they qualified directly for the group stage, finishing first ahead of Dinamo Zagreb, Rapid Viena and Genk. The referee tonight will be the Swiss Sandro Schärer, 33 years old, who has never refereed either team.