Sampdoria 1 - Sevilla 0

Sampdoria: Castellazzi; Lucchini (Bottinelli 52'), Gastaldello, Campagnaro; Pieri (Ziegler 46'), Delvecchio, Sammarco, Franceschini, Padalino; Bellucci (Stankevicius 90'), Cassano. 3-5-2.
Sevilla: Palop; Konko (Mosquera 54'), Escudé, Squillaci, Dragutinovic; Fazio, Maresca (Romaric 79'); Jesús Navas, Renato, Adriano (Diego Capel 66'); Luis Fabiano. 4-2-3-1.

Goals:
1-0. 75. Bottinelli. Chested ball past Palop on far post from Ziegler's free kick.

Two times champions Sevilla were knocked out of the UEFA Cup at the league stage, the first time that a Spanish team have been eliminated at that point of the competition (although Racing were also knocked out the same evening). The Andalusians needed a draw at Sampdoria to be sure of going through, but they lost 1-0 on the night, and Stuttgart's victory over Standard Liège left them in fourth place, albeit that their six points would have taken them through in any other group.

Manolo Jiménez put out a more defensive line up than usual, and Palop had to save from Pieri early on. Renato and Jesús Navas both tested Castellazzi either side of half time. But Franceschini fired a shot over and Delvecchio brought another save out of the keeper before Bottinelli got on the end of Ziegler's long free kick to chest the ball in to the net. Luis Fabiano could have saved the day when he shot wide later on, but it was not to be, and Sevilla now only have the domestic competitions to look forward to in the new year.