Sevilla keen to make progress in Champions League

MADRID - As usual, all the talk in Spanish football this season has focused on Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Did Barca coach Josep Guardiola do the right thing in swapping Samuel Eto’o for Inter Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic? Could the “Pep Team” recapture the sumptuous slick style of last season?

Would the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka et al herald a bright new age for Real? Was Manuel Pellegrini really the right coach to handle the most expensive squad in history?

All the while, Sevilla were carrying on in their usual manner: unobtrusively, quietly, inexpensively, without making a fuss at all.

Their three summer signings - Sergio Sanchez, Didier Zokora and Alvaro Negredo - together cost just a fraction of what Real and Barca spent on new personnel. But they all made a good start in La Liga, particularly former Real striker Negredo, who was soon making hid Spain debut.

Sevilla were soon adopting their usual role, just behind the twin giants, in third place, waiting for the Big Two to slip up.

In October Sevilla beat Real 2-1 with one of their typical high-octane, hard-working displays.

Meanwhile, they made a better start in the Champions League than the twin giants.

It is true that Real started brightly, on a flood of Ronaldo goals. But the Portuguese winger was soon injured - and AC Milan took four points off the whites.

Barca made as poor as start as a defending champion ever has done, dropping four points against Russian champions Rubin Kazan.

Real and Barca will probably qualify for the knockout stage this week - unlike Atletico Madrid - but it is Sevilla that, of the four Spanish teams, have done best in Europe this autumn.

They need just a draw at home to bottom team Rangers Wednesday in order to finish top of Group G.

Against the Scots, Sevilla will be without star striker Luis Fabiano, who is out for three weeks with a twisted right ankle, but even so they should have more than enough firepower to dispatch Rangers.

The burly Negredo will be leading the Sevilla attack, accompanied by either wily veteran Frederick Kanoute or the rapid Arouna Kanoute, with winger Jesus Navas, probably Sevilla’s best performer in Europe this autumn, pouring forward down the right.

Two years ago, in their Champions League debut, Sevilla - who won the UEFA Cup in 2006 and 2997 - topped their first round group only to be edged out in the round of 16 by Fenerbahce.

This time they intend to go much further.

“We really feel that we can go far in the tournament,” said Negredo on Monday, “there is a real confidence about this st the club.

Coach Manolo Jimenez, for his part, said that “we have done well in the group, now our plan is to take each knockout round as it comes, going as far as we possibly can”.