Fiorentina seeks great comeback against Sevilla

Vincenzo Montella will look to mastermind one of the great European comebacks when Fiorentina host Sevilla in Thursday's UEFA Europa League semi-final second leg.

Reigning champions Sevilla took a huge step towards returning to the final with a 3-0 victory in last week's first encounter at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

Unai Emery's side will now attempt to complete the job in Florence, as Sevilla continue their quest to become the first team to win Europe's secondary competition on four occasions.

However, history suggests the Andalusian outfit must err on the side of caution. Indeed, in last season's competition Valencia overturned a 3-0 deficit to progress 5-3 on aggregate in their quarter-final encounter against Basel.

Head coach Montella, whose side recorded back-to-back Serie A victories by beating Empoli 3-2 on Sunday, has not given up the ghost yet.

"On Thursday, we will above all need great self-belief," he said. "It is my duty to transmit my belief to the team.

"It will be a huge task, but I believe we can do it against Sevilla."Part of Sevilla's success has been the goalscoring potential in their team, with Carlos Bacca and Kevin Gameiro each scoring four times in this year's Europa League - the latter netting the third goal in last week's win over Fiorentina.

The form of those two players has meant that on-loan Liverpool man Iago Aspas has been largely restricted to a substitute's role, but he is revelling in Sevilla's success this term.

"The team's season has been very good," he told EPSN.

 "We are almost into the final of the Europa League in Warsaw and fighting for fourth place in La Liga.

"I think it is a good season. On an individual level, when things were going best for me, I was starting games, I had an injury and was out for a month.

"It is difficult, as the coach has played almost the whole season with just one forward. Bacca and Gameiro have scored a lot of goals. 

I have too in the small bit of time I have got to play. But it is difficult. I have done well, but my team-mates have too."Sevilla, who are three points adrift of Valencia in the race for fourth in La Liga, travel to Italy with Beto despite the goalkeeper nursing a shoulder injury, but Dani Parejo (knee) is absent.

Fiorentina, the 1990 runners-up, have injury problems of their own to contend with. Micah Richard (hamstring), Manuel Vargas (adductor) and Nenad Tomovic (hip) are all unavailable for Montella.

Pique wants El Clasico final

While his team-mates are unfazed by who they face in the UEFA Champions League final, Barcelona defender Gerard Pique would welcome an El Clasico against Real Madrid.

Luis Enrique's men booked their spot in Berlin with a 5-3 aggregate win over Bayern Munich, despite losing 3-2 at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday.

Newmarket and Andres Iniesta are happy to play either Juventus or Real Madrid, who complete their semi-final on Wednesday, but Pique said a clash with their La Liga rivals would be ideal.

"A final against [Real] Madrid would be very exciting and historic," Pique said."We've marked an era. 

I'm very happy to be part of this team. We'll remember for a long time, now is the time to enjoy it.

"Neymar netted a brace in Germany after Mehdi Benatia had opened the scoring for the hosts, with the Brazilian's double crucial.

The 23-year-old said his team had celebrated, but understood there was a huge game ahead of them.

"Now we have only one step left. The dressing room hosted a small party, but we still have one more step," Neymar said.

"It's very important to be in the final. It doesn’t matter who we play."Iniesta echoed Neymar's thoughts, and he would like to see Barca win the treble of La Liga, the Champions League and the Copa del Rey.

"Our goal was to be the final and once there it doesn’t matter who our rival is. But we mustn't stop and we have to try and win everything," the midfielder said."Being in the final is huge and it would be incredible to get the titles for the team and for the fans."

Drogba convinced me to join Chelsea - Hazard

Didier Drogba was behind Eden Hazard's big-money transfer to Chelsea almost three years ago, according to the Belgium international midfielder.

Hazard left Lille for Chelsea in a deal reportedly worth £32 million in 2012 and Rudi Garcia, who was coach of the Ligue 1 outfit at the time, claimed a phone call from owner Roman Abramovich persuaded the player to relocate to England .

However, the PFA Players' Player of the Year recipient insisted that was not the case, instead telling The Mirror that Chelsea icon Drogba convinced him to join the London club.

"I didn't want to go to Chelsea because I wanted to play the Champions League and they were sixth in the league," said 24-year-old, who has won the Premier League, League Cup and UEFA Europa League since arriving at Stamford Bridge.

"I was convinced when they won the Champions League in 2012."At the time, Roberto Di Matteo really wanted me, they had Juan Mata, and Oscar had been bought.

I was told: 'You'll see, Chelsea will play football'."Gervinho called me and said: 'Someone's on the phone'.

I didn't know who it was but it was Drogba, he wanted me to sign."I was flattered, he was maybe the best striker in the world. In my head, I wasn't going to sign, but in the end I was very pleased with my choice.

 I didn't speak to Abramovich."I don't know why coach Garcia wrote that in his book."