Sanchez ‘for the chop’ in Euro clash

SEVILLA manager Vincenzo Montella has joked his players might have to ‘kill’ United forward Alexis Sanchez to stop him when the two sides meet tonight.

The Reds travel to Spain for the first leg of the Champions League last-16 tie in search of a positive result to take back to Old Trafford for next month’s return game.

And although Sanchez, 29, is yet to fully hit his stride at United, Montella is well aware of the threat posed by the Chile forward.

“Maybe we could kill him or knock him down or something!” laughed Montella in his pre-match press conference.

“I remember Sanchez really well from his time in Italy. He has improved his style a lot in his career and he’s a really good player in terms of the transitions and finding spaces, and he has really good speed in attack.”

Sevilla defender Sergio Escudero echoed his manager’s sentiments about Sanchez.

The left-back said: “We have a lot of respect for United and, in Alexis Sanchez, they have a really good quality player. We know him from his time at Barcelona – he’s really intelligent and he could be a big danger to us.

“We might be the underdogs, but we can use this as extra motivation. These kind of games are incredible for us, with the whole stadium backing us.

“We will be ready and focused because we want to keep on going in the competition but we know United have some top-class players.”