Champions League draw analysis: Despite troubling Liverpool, Manchester United should be happy with Sevilla
A closer look at the task facing Jose Mourinho's side in the last 16
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Your support makes all the difference.Sevilla’s 3-3 comeback against Liverpool is one of the moments of this Champions League season, and the news that came out of that game that manager Eduardo Berizzo has prostate cancer outweighs any football, but none of that takes away from the fact this is a favourable draw for Manchester United.
The Spanish side aren’t quite what they have been over the past few seasons, when they have pretty much dominated the Europa League - and of course beaten Liverpool in the final in 2016.
Even allowing for what happened to United in the Manchester derby at the weekend, too, Jose Mourinho has made significant progress this season and made a much more solid and dangerous side of the type that can go very far in knock-out continental football.
They should justifiably be seeing the Champions League as their main goal now, and this is the type of draw that could well fire a run - tricky, of course, but not anywhere near as difficult as it might have been.
There was also what the 3-3 with Liverpool said about Sevilla’s defence, even though so much of the focus was naturally on their recovery and the panic they caused in Jurgen Klopp’s defence. That won’t be seen in Mourinho’s, and United and Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford can really get at that porous backline, and get through to the quarter-finals for the first time since 2014. That would suddenly be a novelty again, just as this fixture is.
United and Sevilla have never met before. This first meeting should end with a United victory.
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