FC Zenit can take comfort from a good run of recent European home results as they come into their UEFA Europa League quarter-final decider against holders Sevilla FC trailing 2-1.
Previous meetings
• Sevilla’s 2-1 win in the first leg was the sides’ fifth European meeting: Zenit’s record in those games is now W1 D2 L2. Three of those encounters came during Sevilla’s triumphant 2005/06 UEFA Cup campaign, when Juande Ramos’s lost 2-1 away to Vlastimil Petržela’s Zenit in the group stage then beat the Russian side 5-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.
• The sides for their last encounter in Russia, on 6 April 2006 – a 1-1 draw in which Zenit’s Ivica Križanac and Sevilla’s Kepa were sent off – were:
Zenit: Malafeev*, Radimov, Škrtel, Križanac, Mareš, Šírl (Trifonov 78), Kerzhakov*, Hyun (Kozhanov 58), Poškus, Vlasov, Anyukov.
Sevilla: Palop, Navarro*, Castedo, Daniel Alves, Escudé, Luís Fabiano (Kepa 60), Navas, Adriano (Sales 57), Martí, Ocio, Maresca (Renato 70).
*registered to play in this season’s quarter-finals
Form guide
• Zenit have won their last three European home games without conceding; Sevilla have won their last two on the road, scoring three goals in each.
• Zenit have won only twice in 15 encounters with Spanish sides, and are without a victory in their last eight games against Liga opponents.
• Sevilla have lifted this trophy every time they have made it to the last eight. Zenit also won the competition the last time they reached this stage, in 2007/08.
