 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Sevilla coach Unai Emery has been picking the brains of Juande Ramos as he tries to plot the downfall of Ukrainian outsiders Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in Wednesday's Europa League final.
Ramos coached Sevilla for two years from 2005, winning the old UEFA Cup twice, before an itinerant managerial career took him to Dnipro where he worked until last year.
Emery, who guided Sevilla to Europa League success last season, is renowned for his meticulous preparation and has not missed the opportunity to quiz Ramos as well as two of his former assistants.
"We have very broadly analysed and studied Dnipro, we have compiled information and data from Juande Ramos and Marcos Alvarez and (Juan Ramon) Muniz because we want to have a very close view of the team, we want to study them in detail," Emery told a news conference at Warsaw's National Stadium.
All of these three people have worked at this club, at Dnipro. They have their heart with Sevilla but at the same time they support Dnipro and we have to respect that but they know the best players of Dnipro and they know them well."
Sevilla could lift the trophy for a record fourth time, no mean feat considering all their successes have come since 2006.
They will be clear favourites against Dnipro who are defensively well-organised but no match in attacking terms for Emery's free-scoring side.
Sevilla have netted a Europa League-high 26 goals and lost only one of their 14 outings in this season's competition with a brand of fast-paced counter-attacking football that other teams have struggled to match.
Dnipro have scrapped their way to the final, winning six of their 14 matches since the start of the group stage and scoring a meagre 13 goals.
If there is one lesson the Sevilla coach has learned it is not to underestimate Dnipro.
"If you look at previous matches, what you notice is there are some teams that felt they were favourites versus Dnipro and they could not hold their own," he said.
"They are not going to be a surprise to us. In the locker room we say the performance of this team (Dnipro) is at a (high) European level, we must be mindful of this ... they made it here because they are worth it."
