THE EUROPA LEAGUE WINNERS BACK IN FRONT OF THE FANS IN THE ANTONIO PUERTA TROPHY

The preview of...

Sevilla FC-Independiente del Valle, will be the inagural edition of the UEFA-CONMEBOL Club Challenge, in which the current champions of the UEFA Europa League and the Copa Conmebol Sudamericana face off at 22:00 (Spanish time) in a match sponsored by both confederations. The match will also determine the winner of the twelfth edition of the Antonio Puerta Trophy, in which Sevilla will be aiming for their tenth title. 

Squad 

José Luis Mendilibar will decide this afternoon the players he will count on for the match, once the team arrives in Seville from their training camp in Montecastillo. There are seven players who have recently joined the group after their vacation, some injured players like Marcao, and others who played up to 90 minutes this Tuesday against AD Ceuta FC.

Opposition form 

Independiente del Valle arrived in Spain last Tuesday, the 11th, to carry out a training camp in Marbella. They suffered a defeat in a friendly match against Orlando Pirates, and on Saturday, they will face Getafe CF at the Ciudad del Fútbol in Las Rozas. They recently secured their spot in the final of the Liga PRO championship in their country, and they will compete against the winner of the second round, which begins in August. Also, they are in the round of 16 in the Copa Conmebol Libertadores, where they will face Deportivo Pereira from Colombia in just two weeks.

Previous matches 

It will be the second time that the Sevilla team face a team from Ecuador. They previously visited the country in 2013 as part of a South American tour. One of the stops during that training camp was in Guayaquil, where Sevilla defeated Barcelona SC 1-3, with goals scored by Pareja, Jairo Samperio, and Bacca.

Referee

UEFA have appointed the 32-year-old Slovenian referee Rade Obrenovič for the match. He has been an international referee since 2016 and last season officiated matches in both the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Conference League at the club level, as well as in the UEFA Nations League and the Euro 2020 qualifiers at international level. He also refereed in the recent Under-21 Euro Championship in Romania and Georgia. This will be his first time officiating a Spanish team in a senior match. The assistant referees will be Slovenians Tomaž Klančnik and Aleksandar Kasapovič, while the fourth official will be Italian Simone Sozza.

Broadcast 

The game will be live-streamed on the official Sevilla FC Facebook and YouTube accounts.