Bacca and Sevilla out to create history in the Europa League

October 2, 2014

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By Miles Chambers

It’s rare that a club can be thrashed 4-0 and remain filled with confidence, but Sevilla have earned the right to be glowing with good faith after a sublime opening to the 2014-15 season.

Five wins in seven games since their Uefa Supercup defeat to Real Madrid in mid-August have left Unai Emery and his Rojiblancos team sitting pretty – both domestically and in the Europa League, the competition they won in May.

Their four-goal thumping at Atletico Madrid on Saturday was a disappointment, but otherwise Sevilla have been nearly flawless over the past six weeks. Sitting above European champions Real Madrid (who have scored more goals than any other team in the Spanish top flight) after six Liga games is a brilliant way to move on from a campaign in which they blew expectations out of the water.

Like every other club in Europe that’s not overflowing with oil or broadcast rights money, Sevilla once again had to cash in over the summer.

Star man Ivan Rakitic fully earned his €20 million (£15.6m) move to become Xavi’s successor at Barcelona, but his loss could easily have derailed a team heavily reliant on his moments of magic last season. Defenders Alberto Moreno and Federico Fazio were lost to Liverpool and Tottenham, respectively, further dismantling Emery’s team.

Arrivals were only cut-price investments or low-key loan deals. No marquee names were added, unlike last year when Kevin Gameiro was bought from Paris Saint-Germain with the money from the sales of Alvaro Negredo and Jesus Navas to Manchester City. In other words, their Europa League victory bore no obvious fruit. It could easily have been one step forward, two steps back.

But the confidence pendulum swings both ways. Instead of falling face first into midtable mediocrity and out of Europe, Sevilla have followed Atletico’s recent example by showing that richer rivals can be upset with the right mentality and team-work.

This was a team virtually nobody considered to be a viable contender for a top-four finish, but fourth in La Liga is where they sit and at the heart of the success at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan is their powerful No.9, Carlos Bacca.

Bacca joined Sevilla from Club Brugge for €7m (£5.5m) last year and rapidly paid his transfer fee back in goals. The Colombia international, part of his country’s World Cup 2014 squad, scored 21 times for the Andalusian club in 2013-14 and already has four goals in this campaign.

Dynamic, aggressive and clinical, he has led the line superbly and linked up wonderfully with the likes of Aleix Vidal, Vitolo and Barcelona loanee Denis Suarez.

“To qualify for the Champions League is a dream for us,” Bacca told Goal in September. “We will work hard to get that. We’ve started better than last season but the year is long and we must keep this level up.”

The 28-year-old is in the peak of his striking powers and is likely to cost any interested suitors his buy-out clause of €30m (£23.4m) after Sevilla announced he had signed an improved contract on Tuesday.

Bacca admits Sevilla’s priority is to finish high enough in La Liga to secure European qualification for next season but retaining the Europa League also remains on their radar.

“We are focused on La Liga because we need to regularly qualify for European competitions,” he explained. “I don’t think that we are favourites to win the Europa League again. We must go step by step.”

Sevilla’s visit to Croatian minnows Rijeka on Thursday is not really golden ticket material, but Emery will ensure his team do not take the tie lightly. The 2-0 win over Feyenoord a fortnight ago was a solid start, with Sevilla outplaying a talented, youthful Dutch outfit.

In 2005, Sevilla had never won anything outside of Spain. Two years later, they had become only the second team in the history of the Europa League to win it back-to-back.

Once more they have their sights set on another double, and this season they would like to become the first team ever to triumph four times in the competition. Bacca and his Sevilla cohorts might not be the most obvious history-makers, but they have the poise, the firepower and now the experience to ruffle feathers in the Europa League yet again.

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