Sevilla’s Marko Dmitrovic: ‘I managed to stay calm and take him out’

O ne morning in early March, a bunch of flowers were delivered to Sevilla’s Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán stadium. Addressed to goalkeeper Marko Dmitrovic, they had come from supporters at PSV Eindhoven, a card among the red and white carnations wishing him well and apologising on behalf of fans. “Dear Mister Dmitrovic,” it began, before closing with best wishes for the rest of the competition, which takes him to Old Trafford on Thursday night. “It’s a nice touch,” he says; it will also be different this time, he’s sure.

Different is the word, the first Dmitrovic uses. Asked to define this campaign, it works. “It’s crazy really,” he says. Sevilla, who were briefly contenders last season and qualified for the Champions League for a third consecutive year, now find themselves fighting relegation, having had as many managers as away wins, and dumped into the Europa League. Which is at least their competition and where, two rounds in a row, they survived comebacks and the keeper survived being attacked by fans.

Against Fenerbache, missiles were thrown, a coin hitting him – “he’s got a hard head”, teammate Nemanja Gudelj said – while in the Netherlands a supporter leapt on to the pitch and assaulted him. “He came from behind, I didn’t see him,” Dmitrovic recalls. “It catches you by surprise, you don’t know what’s happening. Who pushed you? Why?” The answer, to use his own words, was some madman. Not least because of all the players, this hooligan went and chose the guy who’s 6ft 3in. The man for whom, as this conversation soon makes clear, the term no-nonsense could have been invented.

Dmitrovic smiles, which he can now. “They did tests and he had a lot of alcohol in his blood; he was mad drunk,” he says. “Maybe he didn’t have the