When Monchi faced Totti: Roma's shared history with Sevilla

Ahead of Thursday's meeting against Sevilla, we look back at our shared history with the Rojiblancos...

Roma and Sevilla will cross paths for the fifth time when they meet in the Antonio Puerta Trophy on Thursday - but they're yet to come up against each other in competitive fixtures.

The first time the two sides met was way back in 1958 during a tournament in Cadiz, which Sevilla won 2-1.

The most recent encounter came two summers ago, when Sevilla visited the Stadio Olimpico for AS Roma's Open Day on 14 August 2015. A real show was put on for the fans too, as Edin Dzeko opened the scoring with a thunderbolt that cannoned in off the bar.

A remarkable nine further goals followed, with the Giallorossi eventually running out 6-4 winners.

In the intervening years, there was a friendly on 2 January 1969 between a joint Sevilla/Real Betis XI and Helenio Herrera's Roma side, which boasted the likes of Fabio Capello, Sergio Santarini, Franco Cordova, Joaquin Peiro and Giuliano Taccola.

The Giallorossi won 2-0 thanks to goals by Taccola and Capello.

The other game, played on 20 August 1995, turned out to be a match of some historical significance, although that significance only became clear 22 years later.

Sevilla were a far cry from the hugely successful team that Monchi built in the noughties – a side capable of winning five UEFA Cup/Europa League titles between 2005 and 2016 – but he was there that day too.

A goalkeeper at the time, Ramon Rodriguez Verdejo - who spent his entire playing career at Sevilla - came on in the second half for Juan Carlos Unzue (incidentally, Unzue is now head coach of Celta Vigo, our opponents on Sunday in the second game of the mini-tour).

That day Monchi found himself defending the goal against what Il Corriere della Sera described as Roma's “back-up striker”.

This back-up striker, who went by the name of Francesco Totti, wasn't yet 19 but he proved to be the only goalscorer that day: “a low angled finish to cap off Statuto's through ball with the help of Branca” was how the paper described his first-half strike, which came when Unzue was still in goal.

That day, a future Roma legend was still in its infancy. Twenty-two years later, on 28 May 2017, that chapter closed.

The story isn't over, though. A new chapter is beginning – and this time Totti and Monchi are on the same side.