Prior to the 2021-22 season, Sevilla had never failed to make it out of their Champions League group – albeit with limited success in the knockout stages – but Julen Lopetegui’s side could only finish third behind Lille and Red Bull Salzburg last term.
Previous successes in Europe’s secondary tournament also counted for nothing as Sevilla lost to West Ham United in the last 16 of the Europa League, but a fourth-placed finish in La Liga handed Los Palanganas another chance to test their mettle in the top tier.
The breakup of the Jules Kounde-Diego Carlos defensive partnership has had a profound effect on the Sevilla team, though, and Lopetegui has steered his side to just one point from their opening four La Liga fixtures to leave them 17th in the embryonic standings.
The visit of a rampant Barcelona was only ever going to end one way, as Eric Garcia, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski propelled La Blaugrana to a 3-0 success at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan to leave Sevilla still waiting for their first win of the new term.
The home faithful can take some solace in the fact that their side are unbeaten in six Champions League opening-day group-stage games – they have drawn each of their last four, though – and one point against Man City may be celebrated like all three this week.
There was to be no third successive hat-trick for Erling Braut Haaland at the weekend, and even though the towering Norwegian made it 10 Premier League goals for the season at Villa Park, Man City dropped another two points early doors.
Haaland was on hand to meet Kevin De Bruyne’s pinpoint cross at the back stick to tap home the opener in the second half, but Leon Bailey’s thunderbolt restored parity for Villa, who were incorrectly denied a second goal for offside when Philippe Coutinho rifled home.
Arsenal now have the chance to move four points clear of Man City at the top of the Premier League table with victory over Manchester United, but there is still a lot of domestic football to be played in the coming months, and City fans are also growing impatient for a continental honour.
The brilliance of Karim Benzema, skilfulness of Vinicius Junior and super-sub impact of Rodrygo all contributed to Real Madrid’s astounding 6-5 aggregate win over City in last year’s Champions League semi-finals, but the Manchester club have never been eliminated from the group stage under Guardiola.
Man City ran out 5-2 winners over two matches when they first met Sevilla competitively in the 2015-16 group stage, and if the home side were not already fearing an in-form Haaland enough, the 22-year-old struck four goals in two games for Borussia Dortmund against Los Palanganas in 2020-21.
