Sevilla are on a run, and they welcome Borussia Dortmund to the Sanchez-Pizjuan this evening in the first leg of the Champions League last 16 full of confidence. They sit fourth in La Liga, a point and a place behind Barcelona, four behind Real Madrid and nine behind leaders Atletico Madrid.
Julen Lopetegui opted for close to a full-strength starting XI, missing just Marcos Acuna and Lucas Ocampos through injury. Bono starts in goal, protected by a back four of Jesus Navas, Jules Kounde, Diego Carlos and Sergio Escudero. Fernando sits, with Joan Jordan and Ivan Rakitic just in front of him. Suso and Papu Gomez start in the wide areas, with Youssef En-Nesyri up top.
Sevilla are on a run of nine straight victories and seven consecutive clean sheets, and they started well, opening the scoring inside the opening ten minutes. Suso saw his effort on goal deflected, spinning past the opposition goalkeeper and into the back of the net to give the Andalusians the ideal start.
Dortmund weren’t long striking back, however, equalising just shy of the 20th minute through a well-taken strike from Mahmoud Dahoud before taking the lead in the 26th minute through Erling Haaland. The Norwegian marksman, one of the European game’s hottest talents, doubled his tally shortly before half-time after seizing on a Sevilla mistake.
