Welcome to Seville, capital of Andalucia and fourth-largest city in Spain, for the first ever England game to be held here.

It’s not the first time Spain have played here of course; in fact, for a long time Seville was something of a lucky venue for the national team, being undefeated here for 68 years between their first match here against Portugal in 1923, and the Euro 1992 qualifier against France when they finally succumbed 1-2.

More recently, Seville as a venue has fallen out of favour with the Spanish FA, perhaps as their last two games here were also home defeats, in friendlies against Holland in November 2000, and against Argentina in November 1999.

Seville is often said to be the city that most closely corresponds to a foreigner’s idea of “typical Spain”, famous for its bullfights, flamenco and fiestas. Anyone sufficiently impressed by the beauty of the place to be tempted to come back might want to consider visiting during the Feria de Abril or April Fair, a week-long street festival that commences two weeks after Easter (although of course at that time of year, accommodation is hard to come by).
 
Seville is steeped in history, reflected in many outstanding monuments and buildings, some of which date back to the Moorish conquest in the eighth century. Even the famous Cathedral began life as a mosque in the 12th century, and has grown to be the biggest Gothic church in the world – in fact depending on whose claims you believe, it is either surpassed in size only by St Peter’s in Rome and St Paul’s in London, or has outgrown even those two to become the world’s biggest Cathedral.

One way to see a lot of the city quickly is to climb La Giralda, the tower that adjoins the cathedral. A slightly more leisurely alternative is the excellent open-topped tourist bus – hop on and off at four points round the city. The buses run every twenty minutes between 10.00am and 6.00pm.