Haaland stalks Lopetegui and a Sevilla without protection

Straight

He was like a runaway horse in power but without losing control of the ball”.

This is how the Sevilla coaches defined Erling Haaland when they saw him in action in the round of 16 of the Champions League of the 2020-2021 edition, in which Dortmund eliminated Sevilla 4-5 on aggregate.

So Haaland scored four of the Germans' five goals.

A year and a half later, the prodigious Norwegian striker threatens Sevilla again.

Now as a scorer for Manchester City, the most difficult rival possible in Sevilla's debut in group G of the Champions League (9:00 p.m., Movistar Champions League).

Haaland has started the season on a tremendous level.

He has 10 goals in six games and has scored against Aston Villa after two consecutive hat-tricks against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest.

He scores every 44 minutes and averages 1.6 goals per game.

City, current English champions, have won four and drawn two of the six games they have played in the Premier, with a total of 18 goals scored (second place).

A team with an average of three goals per game that visits a Sevilla without protection, which has lost the mantle of security conferred by the transferred Diego Carlos and Koundé.

Sevilla, which was the team with the fewest goals last year (30 goals), has already conceded eight in four games, with a balance of one point out of a possible 12 (16th place).

If in the last league season they only lost four games, in this one they have already lost three in the first four days.

The fans wonder in every corner of Seville how long Julen Lopetegui will last on the bench.

In a city as soccer-loving as the capital of Andalusia, rumors about possible substitutes for the Basque are skyrocketing.

Marcelino, Pochettino and Pellegrino are some of the names that are beginning to circulate strongly.

Meanwhile, within the club, a reaction from the team is expected that will allow it to arrive half recomposed to the break this September.

Lopetegui is supported by Monchi.

Some members of the executive council of Sevilla do question the Basque coach, a bet against the current of Monchi himself in 2019. A worthy defeat against City in the Champions League debut would be amortized, but another fall on Saturday in the League against Espanyol would leave Lopetegui on the ropes despite the support of Monchi, an executive who has a hard time dismissing a coach.

"Let's see if we all blow together to get to this month's break better", they warn from within the club in search of that victory that rehabilitates a soft and unknown team, which has matched Sevilla's worst start in the League along with those of the 1935-1936, 1949-1950 and 1981-1982 seasons.

The leaders try to convey a message of calm to the environment and even Lopetegui has changed his surly tone at press conferences to a much more sociable and friendly one.

Monchi, on September 1, took a photo eating with Lopetegui to express the good harmony he has with the Basque coach.

“There is no cooling off with Lopetegui”, highlighted Sevilla's sporting director, to whom a large part of the fans also criticizes the planning carried out this summer.

Sold Diego Carlos and Koundé, the substitutes are Marcao, who arrived injured and has not recovered, and Nianzou, a 20-year-old forced to pick up stripes from the beginning.

With Rekik between cottons, Fernando had to play against Barcelona.

Now Fernando is very fair to play against City.

While Sevilla opens up the channel, Haaland, a neighbor of Verdiblanco Joaquín in Marbella, where he has bought a house, sharpens the scythe.

And it is already known that the City striker is insatiable.

Guardiola and Lopetegui flatter each other

"Pep Guardiola is the best coach in the world," declared Julen Lopetegui.

This is how he summed up the affection that the Sevilla coach has for the Catalan coach.

Julen and Pep were teammates for three seasons at Barcelona, ​​between 1994 and 1997. The first two years with Johan Cruyff on the bench in a team that only won one Spanish Super Cup and then in the 1996-1997 season with Bobby Robson on the bench, obtaining a European Cup Winners' Cup, a King's Cup and a Spanish Super Cup.

Lopetegui did not play much in Barcelona, ​​a total of 10 games, five of them in the League in which he did not coincide with Guardiola.

They did play together in a Cup duel, another in the UEFA (curiously against Sevilla with Barça winning 3-1 and eliminating the Andalusian team) and another in the Spanish Super Cup.

Julen is my friend.

Not long ago I was fighting for the League with Madrid.

It will be a complicated game”, Guardiola himself stated.

"If a lung and a heart have been taken from us, we have to regenerate to be able to compete," admitted the Sevilla coach when asked about the absences of Diego Carlos and Koundé.

Lopetegui has directed Sevilla in 14 Champions League games, of which the Andalusians won five games, drew another five and lost four.

Sevilla already faced City in the group stage of the 2015-2016 season.

In the English team, then trained by Manuel Pellegrini, only De Bruyne remains, who scored the second goal of City's victory in the first leg (2-1).

In the second leg, another win for the Manchester team (1-3).

Those who do play for Sevilla are Jesús Navas and Fernando, then City footballers who faced Sevilla.

The Andalusian team reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League in 2018, eliminated by Bayern Munich.

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