Quique Sánchez Flores Chases a First Win at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán
Ten matches, eight defeats, and two draws. That is the stark record Quique Sánchez Flores carries into the Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán ahead of Friday’s fixture between Sevilla FC and Deportivo Alavés.
The 61-year-old manager returns to the stadium that served as his home during the 2023-24 season, where he steered the club away from relegation trouble. Yet across distinct spells in the LaLiga dugout leading Getafe CF, Valencia CF, Atlético de Madrid, and RCD Espanyol, Sánchez Flores has never secured an away victory in Nervión.
Decades of Frustration in Nervión
The visiting manager’s winless run in Seville began during the 2004-05 campaign with a scoreless draw against Getafe in his first visit to the stadium. Subsequent trips with Valencia compounded the drought, yielding three consecutive 1-0 and 3-0 defeats between early 2006 and late 2007. Stints with Atlético de Madrid brought two identical 3-1 losses in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons, while a dramatic 6-4 reverse arrived with Espanyol on the opening weekend of the 2016-17 campaign.
A solitary point with Espanyol in a 1-1 draw during the 2017-18 season offered brief relief, before consecutive losses of 1-0 and 2-1 during his second spell with Getafe in 2021-22 and 2022-23 rounded out the negative sequence.
The Contrast of Past Rescue Work
Friday’s encounter offers a complex emotional backdrop, as the visiting coach takes charge of Alavés at the venue where he spent 25 matches rescuing Sevilla from danger during a turbulent 2023-24 campaign. Taking over between December and May, Sánchez Flores compiled ten victories, four darts, and eleven defeats to secure top-flight safety alongside captain Sergio Ramos, though he began that tenure by thrashing Granada CF three to zero away at the Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes, and successfully steadied the side after neither José Luis Mendilibar nor Diego Alonso had managed to find the key earlier in a campaign made more difficult than what followed in subsequent years.
Despite that successful preservation of elite status, club president José María del Nido Carrasco announced on May 18, 2024, that the parties had agreed to part ways. Quique and I agreed last night that he will not be Sevilla’s coach starting June 30,
the club president stated, while the outgoing manager reflected on an emotional tenure that left him changed.
Historical Head-to-Head Records
Beyond his matches specifically inside the Sánchez-Pizjuán, Sánchez Flores has faced Sevilla 20 times across his career overall, claiming five victories. One of those rare successes arrived during his most recent meeting with the Andalusian side, when he guided Getafe to a 2-0 away victory in the 2022-23 season.
As the two teams prepare for Friday’s kickoff, supporters in Nervión are expected to offer a warm ovation to the coach who helped steady their club during a critical juncture, even as he seeks to finally overturn his personal winless streak as a visitor in Seville.
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