La Liga Hangover: Sampaoli’s Sevilla Are Already a Wonderful Point of Difference

Quique Sanchez Flores slumped back angrily into his chair, thumping his matchday notes over his knee with the exasperation of a man who’d had enough. “It’s only Week 1, Quique,” you wanted to reach out and say. “We’re only 22 minutes in,” you felt compelled to add. 

For Flores, though, that was the problem. 

There in the dugout at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan on Saturday night, the Espanyol boss rolled his eyes with the sort of disdain Judge Judy would be proud of. Next to him, his assistant, Alberto Giraldez, sat there trapped in the silent discomfort you experience when a couple fights in the front seat of a car as you munch down your kebab in the back, trying to keep lettuce and garlic sauce off the leather. Speaking wasn’t the wise move. 

Jorge Sampaoli cut an entirely different figure. In front of his opposite number, the Sevilla manager wouldn’t have looked out of place at an AC/DC concert, his fists clinched, his head thrown back in primal roars. From 0-1 down, his side had gone 2-1 up through goals to Pablo Sarabia and Luciano Vietto. They’d needed only 14 minutes to reverse the advantage, too, and perhaps Flores had seen what was coming. 

Actually, come on now, no one had seen this coming: 2-2.

2-3.

3-3.

4-3.

5-3.

6-3.

6-4.

“We spent all 90 minutes on the attack,” Sampaoli said afterward, per the Sevilla Twitter account.

You’re not wrong, Jorge.

FT: Sevilla 6 – Espanyol 4Phew…