Sampaoli faces his first final in Dortmund

There is no truce for Jorge Sampaoli. The Argentine coach arrived on the Sevilla bench just five days ago and is already facing the first final of his second spell at Pizjuán. The Seville team visits Borussia Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park, a veritable cauldron with its fearsome yellow wall. It also does so with the urgent need to achieve a victory so as not to say goodbye to the Champions League at the first change.

A lot of pressure for a team that offered slight signs of improvement at the debut of its new coach against Athletic. The start was overwhelming and invited the Nervión parish to dream, but the Basque team ended up putting things in their place and being superior despite the fact that Sevilla had in the final stretch the possibility of even ending up taking the victory. He will need much more if he intends to storm the ‘Borussier’ fiefdom, from which not even the mighty Bayern could get the three points last Saturday in the Bundesliga match.

At least the situation has nothing to do with the one that Sevilla experienced in the duel against Dortmund at Pizjuán, with Julen Lopetegui on the bench despite the fact that the Basque coach knew that his hours in office were numbered. In the midst of the noise, the Andalusian team weighed heavily on the power vacuum and paid with the great punch of the German team for the lack of kilometers of an axis of the defense of circumstances, formed by the homegrown players José Ángel Carmona and Kike Salas. Sampaoli bet from the first moment on the hitherto unpublished Marcao and also on the young Nianzou, the two summer signings called to replace the long-awaited Diego Carlos and Koundé.

Bellingham, to send

The Brazilian may not be in his best form yet, weighed down by inactivity due to his latest injuries, but at least he showed the hierarchy of a central defender for the Champions level. He will be essential against a rival with gunpowder in abundance. He showed it in Nervión with Jude Bellingham in charge of operations. The English midfielder is the center of gravity around which the team led by Edin Terzic revolves, which also has the danger of Brandt and Adeyemi on the wings and the exuberance and the goal of the young Moukoko, given the great opportunity to make the leap final to his career pending the return of Haller, who is recovering from a testicular tumor.

Meanwhile, at Sevilla, Fernando continues to be out, so the options that Sampaoli handles as a defensive midfielder go through Gudelj or Delaney. Ahead, Joan Jordán and Papu Gómez point to the interior profiles, with many possibilities for Lamela on the right side of Seville’s attack along with Dolberg and Isco since Óliver Torres, the best player in the duel against Athletic, is not registered in the Champions.