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FROM BENFICA TO AKHISARSPOR, ONE HUNDRED WINS IN EUROPEAN COMPETITION

25/10/2018

Our win last night against the Turkish side was our 100th in Europe, when we only had eleven at the start of the century

Sevilla FC have been representing the city in Europe for more than six decades, and this Thursday, after their win against Akisarspor at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, they reached their 100th win in such competitions. And Sevilla can boast of having at least one win in every European competition other than the Intertoto Cup, a tournament to qualify for the UEFA Cup which was played between 1995 and 2008. The one hundred wins have come quickest, as could be expected, in the current century and more precisely in the past 15 years, which count for no less than 89 of these 100 wins. Funnily, Sevilla also recorded their biggest win in European competitions on the night they picked up their 100th.

Sevilla made their debut in Europe in black and white in the European Cup in 1957 against Benfica and they also managed to beat the Danish Aarhus. They secured their maiden wins in the UEFA Cup Winners Cup in the 70s against Glasgow Rangers and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup against the Turkish Eskisehirspor in 1970. From then until 2000, the rest of our continental success came in the UEFA Cup, winning games against the Bulgarian Levski, that famous rout against PAOK, the insufficient victories against Kaiserslautern and Torpedo Moscow, the famous win against Botev Plovdiv, remembered for Suker's goal, and the last win of the century against Olympiakos.

11 European wins were secured in the 20th century, compared to the 89 in the 21st

These are many memories which in themselves are true milestones for Sevillismo, who could have hardly imagined what was to come. The most recent era opened with a win against Nacional de Madeira in 2004 and, little by little, winning in Europe became a lot more normal. Winning mere matches was no longer enough, now the club wanted to lift titles.

Even still, to reach these decisive matches we had to break the mould and create historic moments, such as Puerta's ever-famous goal against Schalke or the rout in Athens mere hours after the youth graduate's passing away. Palop's goal against Shakhtar, the 3-1 win against Arsenal, or the exhibition in Ibrox Park against Rangers were some memories of the past decade, which gave way to massive wins like the last continental derby won in Heliópolis, the win in Nervión against Juventus, or, only six months ago, the win in Old Trafford.

Leaving behind the sentimental side and moving to cold figures, Sevilla FC have reached the 100 wins in only 189 matches, with 73 in the Europa League, 24 in the Champions League, as well as one victory in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the UEFA Cup Winners Cup and the European Supercup. 64 of them have come at home - two in the Campo de Nervión and the rest in the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán - with a total of 36 wins away from home or on neutral ground. In fact, the country in which we've won the most matches is Germany, with five wins, followed by Portugal and the rest of Spain with three. In terms of the teams we have faced, the one we have beaten the most is Steaua Bucharest, who have fallen at the hands of Sevilla four times, despite it being in the Sánchez-Pizjuán where they won their sole European Cup. They are followed by Glasgow Rangers, who have been defeated three times by Sevilla.

Steaua Bucharest, with four losses, have lost the most matches against Sevilla

To finish off with the geographical stats, Germany appears once more in first place, this time as the nationality against which Sevilla have had the most success in Europe. Out of the 100 wins, twelve came against German teams. The second in line is Greece, whose teams have been defeated eight times, followed by Spain, with seven, and then Portugal, England and Russia, who all share fourth position, having been subject to six defeats. With some luck, Sevilla expect our figures in Europe to keep growing at this pace.