LONDON: Sevilla boss Diego Alonso has challenged his players to avenge their Champions League loss to Arsenal when the Spanish side meet the Gunners in a crucial Group B clash on Wednesday.
Defeat for the reigning Europa League champions would leave their chances of reaching the Champions League knockout stages hanging by a slender thread.
Arsenal are top of the group after their 2-1 win at Sevilla a fortnight ago, while Alonso’s men sit four points behind them in third place with three games to play.
Alonso believes Sevilla deserved more from their last encounter with Arsenal and he wants his side to prove a point when they face the Premier League title chasers in north London.
“We competed well, with an unfair result for me because we did more for the game,” Alonso told reporters on Tuesday.
Arsenal have lost two of their three domestic games since beating Sevilla, with Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Newcastle an especially painful result given the controversial nature of the Magpies’ winner.
Keen not to rile up Mikel Arteta’s side any further, Alonso was respectful of Arsenal’s quality, rating them as one of Europe’s elite clubs in Europe,
“The game at a strategic and football level is complex,” Alonso said.
“We are facing the fourth or fifth best team in Europe, they showed it last season, same in this one.
“It puts us in difficulties, but it also put us in difficulties two weeks ago.”
Sevilla will be without former Real Madrid star Sergio Ramos after the defender was ruled out with a calf injury.
Sevilla boss Alonso wants to avenge ‘unfair’ Arsenal loss
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Sevilla boss Alonso wants to avenge ‘unfair’ Arsenal loss
- Arsenal are top of the group after their 2-1 win at Sevilla a fortnight ago
- Alonso believes Sevilla deserved more from their last encounter with Arsenal
Sudan beat Equatorial Guinea for rare AFCON win
- Unlucky Torino center-back Coco saw the ball come off him and ricochet into the net in the 74th minute
CASABLANCA: Sudan boosted their chances of qualifying for the knockout stage of the Africa Cup of Nations after a Saul Coco own goal gave them a 1-0 win over Equatorial Guinea on Sunday.
Unlucky Torino center-back Coco saw the ball come off him and ricochet into the net in the 74th minute in Casablanca when his teammate Luis Asue attempted to clear a Sudan free-kick.
Sudan won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1970 but this is just their second victory in 18 matches across six appearances at the tournament since then.
They lie 117th in the FIFA world rankings, compared to Equatorial Guinea in 97th.
The win leaves Kwesi Appiah’s team on three points from two games in Group E, while Equatorial Guinea have lost both matches so far.
Sudan are competing at this AFCON in Morocco despite the country having been devastated since war broke out between the army and rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023.
They will play Burkina Faso in their last group game on Wednesday and will be aiming to reach the knockout stages of the Cup of Nations for just the second time since that 1970 triumph — they got to the quarter-finals in 2012 before losing to eventual winners Zambia.
