Inter, Sevilla fight for €4m Europa League prize money
Europa League final is expected to see the Spanish side, Sevilla take on Inter Milan of Italy today with €4million at stake for the winners in Cologne, Germany.
Winning the Europa League is also very lucrative in terms of prize money.
By reaching the final of the competition, Sevilla and Inter have each guaranteed themselves £3.84million (€4.5m).
The club that lifts the trophy will also earn an additional £3.41m (€4m).
Europa League prize money 2019/20:
Qualification for the round of 32 – £427,000 (€500,000) each
Qualification for the round of 16 – £940,000 (€1.1m) each
Qualification for the quarter-finals – £1.28m (€1.5m) each
Qualification for the semi-finals – £2.05m (€2.4m) each
Qualification for the final – £3.84m (€4.5m) each
Europa League winners can expect to earn an additional £3.41m (€4m)
Sevilla have won this competition five times, but beating Antonio Conte’s free-scoring team won’t be easy for the Spanish side
Sevilla and Inter Milan have never played each other in a UEFA competition. That will finally change later tonight when they face off in Cologne for this season’s Europa League final.
After 196 matches and 543 goals, it all comes down to this final encounter at the Stadion Köln. Both teams enter the match in prime form: unbeaten in their last five. While Sevilla registered a 2-1 comeback win against Manchester United in their semi-final, Inter Milan cruised to a comfortable 5-0 victory against Shakhtar Donetsk.
Interestingly, both sides also have nothing to lose – this final is pretty much like a free hit. Sevilla finished fourth in the 2019-20 La Liga season, while Inter Milan missed out on the Serie A title by an agonizing margin, finishing just a point behind champions Juventus. They are both assured of a slot in next season’s Champions League group stage anyway. This final, however, does offer the teams an excellent chance to finish the season with a flourish, and a trophy. The Europa League is often placed in a different bracket than the more prestigious UEFA Champions League. But over recent years, the former has made its mark and garnered a cult following by hosting some breathtaking football.
A win here would be a massive boost for either of the two managers as well. Sevilla’s Julien Lopetegui has done an impressive job ever since he took over the side last June. While Sevilla had finished 6th in the 2018-19 season, Lopetegui himself was getting over a tumultuous phase in his managerial career. He was famously sacked as manager of the Spanish national team just days before the 2018 World Cup, after Real Madrid jumped the gun to announce him as their next manager. His stint at Madrid, however, was nothing short of disastrous. After a string of early bad results that ended with a 5-1 El Clasico defeat against FC Barcelona, he was sacked by the club in October 2018. The fact that he has managed to guide Sevilla back to the Champions League speaks volumes.
For Inter Milan, meanwhile, it’s a first European final in almost a decade, when they had defeated Bayern Munich in the 2009-10 UEFA Champions League final. Antonio Conte has also redeemed his tarnished managerial credentials after being sacked by Chelsea, by finishing second in Serie A with a side that had finished 5th in the 2018-19 season. Inter have experienced Europa League glory three times in the past and Conte must be looking to add to that list.
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Tactically speaking, you can expect Conte’s preferred 3-5-2 system against Lopetegui’s 4-3-3 formation that often changes to a 4-5-1 whenever Sevilla are not in possession. But if there’s one team that knows how to win a Europa League title, it’s the side from Seville. The Spanish outfit have reached the final an astonishing six times, including this one, and have been crowned champions on five occasions – they are the most successful side in the history of this competition.