Tomáš Souček has history with Sevilla.
Before his days as a Hammer, when featuring in midfield for Slavia Prague in the spring of 2019, Souček and his teammates, including Vladimír Coufal and Alex Král, met the La Liga side in the UEFA Europa League round of 16.
After a 2-2 draw in the away leg, with Král scoring, Souček helped his team secure a famous victory in the Czech capital, netting from the penalty spot as Slavia came from behind to secure a thrilling 4-3 victory in extra-time and a 6-5 win on aggregate.
The occasion still lives with the Czech Republic national-team captain and, ahead of a repeat meeting with Sevilla in the round of 16, this time with West Ham United, the 27-year-old is hoping to have a similar impact; this time in Claret and Blue.
"I’m really looking forward to the game," he told West Ham TV, as West Ham prepare to try and overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit at a sold-out London Stadium. "I know I want to beat Sevilla.
"We managed to beat them three years ago in extra time in the same round, when I was with Slavia Prague, and I hope it happens again on Thursday because it is a huge opportunity.
"But we need to score and I hope, on Thursday, in front of a full stadium, we show our quality and make the most of the opportunity. I was close on Sunday but we finally won the game [2-1 against Aston Villa in the Premier League]. I didn’t need to score in the end but hopefully I’ve saved it for Thursday’s game."
The Irons head into Thursday's tie on the back of a hard-fought three points in the Premier League against Villa, and the midfielder felt the team deserved the victory.
He said: "We really needed it. Before today, we’d lost three games in a row, so we needed to get back to winning ways. It was a big batch of points to add to our tally.
"It was a really good performance. I think we really deserved to win because we kept the ball and we defended very well. We just needed to score and I’m so happy Yarmo scored our first goal. He deserved it the most out of everyone."
Souček also had words of support for teammate and friend Andriy Yarmolenko, who scored an emotional goal on his first appearance since his home country of Ukraine was invaded by Russia on 24 February.
"We are really close and we speak with him about everything. We know how hard it has been for him, his family and for his country.
"It’s been a really time for him and no one who is living in another country can really understand what he’s going through. I’m just really happy that he and his family are here and are healthy, and especially that he could play today. He did the maximum and he deserved to score. I’m so happy he did because he’s a great guy.
"I saw from the pitch that the whole stadium was clapping for him. It was a lot of emotion. I’m so happy for it. He showed his quality in a tough time. He scored the goal in a win and that’s great."
