West Ham have been handed a tough draw in the form of Spanish outfit Sevilla for their Europa League Round of 16 clash. After Barcelona, the Andalusians were probably the toughest side that the Hammers could’ve drawn at this stage- they have an incredible record in the Europa League and have won 27 of the 28 UEL knockout ties they’ve played in the competition since 2013.
There is however a little glimmer of hope for the Hammers. The only team that stopped Sevilla from winning a UEL knockout tie in those 28 games was a side that contained Tomas Soucek, Vladimir Coufal and Alex Kral (all currently West Ham players). That was Czech outfit Slavia Prague, at this very Round of 16 stage back in the 2018/19 season. Slavia drew 2-2 in the first leg in Spain, and won 4-3 in the return one at home, thus prevailing 6-5 on aggregate after extra time.
The Hammers haven’t been in great form domestically in recent weeks, but do have the slight advantage of playing the second leg at home on March 17. The first leg will be played at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan on March 10.
David Moyes’ men were poor in their 1-1 draw against Newcastle last week and will play Wolves this Sunday.
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