Exposed by Real Madrid, Fiorentina will like to cash in on Sevilla’s vulnerability

Joaquin Sanchez is an excellent ball-player for Fiorentina and whose career never took as it should have. Gabriele Maltinti / Getty Images

A single brick has been removed from fortress Sanchez Pizjuan, a chink of light revealed for daunted guests.

Real Madrid’s win at Sevilla at the weekend was the first the tenants of the slightly rickety, always rousing arena had suffered at home in over a year.

That will be cherished as a sign of encouragement by Fiorentina, as they attempt to conquer the heat and ardour of Andalucia in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final against Sevilla.

Advice on how fierce can be the ambience of the Sanchez Pizjuan is near at hand. Joaquin Sanchez, the Fiorentina winger, comes from the region, and grew up as a footballer in Seville.

He will hear the most vigorous boos when the line-ups are announced because Sanchez was a Real Betis player, and a figurehead of Sevilla’s chief local rivals.

The 33-year-old Spaniard has since found a happy niche in the enterprising, skillful Fiorentina side.

Sanchez would be entitled to think he deserves a major final in the later phase of a career which soared in his teens but then took a detour away from the glories enjoyed by many of his Spanish contemporaries at World Cups and European championships.

Likewise Joaquin’s old friend, Jose Antonio Reyes, once a teenager commanding record fees, when he moved from the Sevilla he grew up with to Arsenal.

Reyes’s career has detoured many times, but finds himself at a place of contented maturity, at 31, regularly wearing the captain’s armband during his second spell with Sevilla.

The Europa League has been his regular compensation for an international career that started young and terminated too young. He has won it twice, with Atletico Madrid, in 2010, and with Sevilla last year.

The presence of Joaquin and Reyes, ball-players with a maverick streak, recommends Sevilla versus Fiorentina as a tie to relish.

The Italians have a panache about them under the coaching of Vicenzo Montella, and some useful extra pace up front since Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian, arrived on loan from Chelsea in January.

Fiorentina’s away record in Europe offers them hope; they are undefeated in their last 12 trips in continental competitions.

Possession of the trophy has added value this year, bringing guaranteed access to the group phase of the 2015/16 Uefa Champions League.

Intriguingly, none of the four semi-finalists have achieved that via their domestic league positions. Sevilla, and Napoli, who play Dnipro in their semi-final, are both one place off the last Champions League qualifying position in Primera Liga and Serie A respectively; Fiorentina are two places and 11 points shy.

Dnipro stand second in Ukraine, enough to gain a place in next season’s Champions League pre-qualifiers, but can still be overtaken.

So all four are playing not just for prestige, but for a huge potential future bounty, upwards of €40 million (Dh165m).

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