Some details are taking shape in Sevilla, as a result of the contribution of Jorge Sampaoli, their new coach, who has barely seen a week on the Seville bench.
Sampaoli has brought back the much-maligned Rakitic and Jesús Navas –almost discarded by his predecessor, Julen Lopetegui–, and both are trying to play a notable role in Sevilla’s reconstruction.
With both talents on the field of play, and the lucidity of Nianzou (author of Sevilla’s goal and the equalizer for the Germans), Sevilla changed their face in Dortmund on Tuesday, but not their expectations, because the sick , even apparently stabilized, remains in the ICU.
In a way, everything that comes now is a matter of priorities. Sevilla does not shoot in any way and, for that reason, his hypothetical (and very likely) goodbye to the Champions League would allow him to focus on the League, no small matter: at the moment, he is in the relegation zone, no joke.
Before a desperate Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund chose to swim and put away their clothes. In their first post-Håland season, the yellows have lost punch, but not consistency in the midfield.
Dortmund is going strong in the Bundesliga (quarters) and has a foot and a half in the Champions League round of 16, and for that reason on Tuesday it was enough for him to temporize and watch how Sevilla burned alone.
In reality, it hasn’t been that simple, because Sampaoli’s Sevilla is not Lopetegui’s: they have more intention and more guts, although they continue to lose their bearings twenty minutes into the game, when they suffer recurring blackouts.
Those blackouts also appeared last night at Signal Iduna Park: Nianzou’s goal (18), after a twisted center by Rakitic, was followed by the drop in Seville tension.
Mistakes followed from the rear, with Marcao almost always in the middle, and all of that led to a draw for Dortmund (Nianzou’s own goal, in the 35th minute, who had tried to deflect a shot from Bellingham), a goal that was something more than that: it placed Sevilla practically out of the Champions League (it will need a miracle, such as defeating Copenhagen and City at home and trusting that the English win in Dortmund), but it also gave it a breath of fresh air and a little of clarity.
If Europe is a utopia, it had better focus on the really serious things.
