EUROPA LEAGUE: Sevilla vs Shakhtar, Villarreal to host Liverpool

The Ukrainian side line up against the tournament’s most successful team in their semi-final, while Jurgen Klopp faces off against Marcelino.

The defending champions have been paired with Shakhtar Donetsk in the Europa League semi finals, while Liverpool have to deal with Villarreal if they are to make it to the final.

Sevilla, the most successful team in Europa League history, saw off Athletic club in the last round and made it to the final four. They are the current holders of the competition, beating Dnipro 3-2 in Warsaw and are set to defend their title. The last time they faced Shakhtar, Goal keeper Andrés Palop headed in a 94th-min 2nd-leg equaliser!

Liverpool incredibly stormed into the Europa League semifinals 5-4 on aggregate after an improbable 4-3 win over Borussia Dortmund in their second leg at Anfield on Thursday.

They also got the better of Augsburg and Manchester United before setting up a clash with the yellow submarines.

Villarreal, might not be the most fashionable of the four clubs and the second leg is at Anfield – but the Spaniards are fourth in La Liga, having beaten both Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid and drawn with Barcelona at home, and they have knocked out Napoli and Bayer Leverkusen.

It’s a very difficult tie for Liverpool.

They also have Cedric Bakambu, the competitions’ top scorer who is firing on all cylinder Shakhtar Donetsk are not the rookies in the semi-finals after destroying Braga 6-1 on aggregate. They are the winner of the last UEFA CUP edition (prior to the competition being renamed as the UEFA Europa League in 2009) after beating Werder Bremen of Germany 2–1 at Istanbul, Turkey.

Road to Basel
Semi-finals:
28 April & 5 May
Final: St. Jakob-Park, Basel at 20.45CET on Wednesday 18 May