91Èȱ¬

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As anyone with some knowledge of the history of the Europa League, this is Sevilla's competition.

Since 2005-06, they have won it a whopping six times, the last of those coming in 2019-20 courtesy of a 3-2 victory over Inter Milan.

They're the favourites to make that tally seven this season. And with good reason. They have a high-quality coach in Julen Lopetegui and some serious playing talent, including defender Jules Kounde, midfielder Ivan Rakitic and forwards Lucas Ocampo and Youssef En-Nesyri.

They're strong, well-organised and a tough nut to crack, born out in La Liga's best defensive record this season.

Manager David Moyes wants West Ham to make European qualification a regular occurrence as they prepare to take on Sevilla in the Europa League last 16.

Moyes has turned the Hammers from relegation candidates to top-four challengers since returning to the club in December 2019.

Thursday's first leg will be their first knockout tie in a major European competition since 1981.

"I want this to be the new West Ham," said the Scot.

"This time last year I felt Europe was a possibility. Prior to that, we were about avoiding relegation, that was the job.

"To think of where we have come in one year, from mid-table to challenging for Europe, now we're talking in terms of Champions League football. We have moved a big amount in a short space of time."

Has it really been three months since West Ham last played in the Europa League?

The 1-0 home loss to Dinamo Zagreb back in December wasn't all that meaningful, having no effect on the Hammers' progress as group winners.

They came into that game off the back of a 3-2 home win over Chelsea, with Champions League qualification very much on the agenda.

They come in to this evening's game having won just one of their last five fixtures in all competitions, with successive defeats at Southampton and Liverpool. It means they are now outsiders for that top four finish and leaving the Europa League as possibly a better bet to make Europe's premier club competition.

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Michail Antonio says he and his West Ham team-mates were gutted to see Jarrod Bowen pick up an injury against Liverpool last weekend.

Bowen was helped off with a heel injury in the Hammers' 1-0 defeat at Anfield, but Antonio hopes the in-form forward will be back soon.

He told the Footballer's Football podcast on 91Èȱ¬ Sounds: "The club said the injury he sustained isn’t as bad as first thought.

"When Jarrod went off the boys were devastated because he’s been on fire. We know the threat he has so losing him at that stage of the game when we were 1-0 down was devastating.

"But someone is coming on to do a job and we need to believe in them and believe they can help out and what Jarrod does for the team. That’s why we have squads."

Listen to more from Antonio on Bowen from 9'20 on 91Èȱ¬ Sounds

There was good news and bad news for West Ham and Jarrod Bowen in particular at the weekend. The good is that he avoided suffering a serious heel injury during the loss at Liverpool. The bad news is that he will miss this evening's game, leaving the Hammers with a big attacking void to fill.

Bowen is the club's top scorer in all competitions this season, with 12. Such was his form that some were tipping him to be part of the England squad this month.

One Europa League tie we won't be seeing in this last 16 is RB Leipzig v Spartak Moscow, with Russian teams removed from the competition as a result of the country's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

That continues to have a ripple effect through football, including with today's big story of Chelsea's Russian owner Roman Abramovich being sanctioned by the UK government.

You can read all the latest on that here.

Great news for West Ham to have Declan Rice in the centre of that midfield. Nikola Vlasic given the chance to shine in Jarrod Bowen's absence.

Useful looking Sevilla side, that.

You may recognise a few of those names from Premier League past. No Erik Lamela, but there's one Anthony Martial on the bench.

Sevilla make one change from the side that drew 0-0 against Alaves in La Liga last Friday with Oliver Torres replacing the suspended Thomas Delaney in midfield.

Sevilla XI: Bono, Navas, Kounde, Ocampos, Gudelj, Jordan, Rakitic, Torres, Acuna, Corona, En-Nesyri.

West Ham boss David Moyes make two changes to the side that started their narrow defeat to Liverpool in the Premier League at Anfield last weekend.

Declan Rice returns from illness to replace the injured Jarrod Bowen, while Alphonse Areola starts in goal in place of Lukasz Fabianski.

West Ham XI: Areola, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell, Johnson, Rice, Soucek, Fornals, Vlasic, Antonio, Lanzini.

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West Ham have a tough task on their hands this evening against the side currently placed second in La Liga, behind only Real Madrid.

David Moyes actually feels the tie is the toughest his side could possibly have been handed, even with Barcelona floating around in the draw.

While Sevilla have won just three of their last 10 matches in all competitions, Friday's 0-0 at Alaves was their fourth league draw in six games.

A more daunting fact is that they have not suffered defeat at Estadio Ramon Sánchez Pizjuan since losing to Lille in the Champions League back on 2 November.

Just to complicate matters, there are also four Premier League matches tonight. We'll be covering those via live text commentary as usual. But it'll be yet another separate live to this.

So look out for that shortly on our home and football index pages.

Is that everything? Right, let's focus in on these European shenanigans then, eh?

If it's Rangers' Europa League game with Red Star Belgrade that you're after, you need to hop on over to the live text commentary from our colleagues in Scotland.

But that won't be for a little while yet, with that match kicking off at 20:00 GMT.

It's going to be a long old night of European football tonight.

We get under way at 17:45 GMT, with West Ham away at Spanish side Sevilla in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie.

Once that is all wrapped up, we switch to the King Power Stadium, where French club Rennes are the visitors for a Europa Conference League last-16 first leg.

We'll also feed in some of the best action from elsewhere, including Barcelona v Galatasaray in the Europa League (20:00).

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One last chance for silverware.

This is what European competition now represents for West Ham and Leicester. The league title was always going to be a long shot (despite the Foxes having form in such things) and the domestic cups are done and dusted as far as they are concerned.

So here we are, Europa and Europa Conference League, last 16. Who fancies a last shot at glory?