When David Moyes led his Manchester United side to victory over Olympiacos in March 2014, be probably didn’t expect he’d be waiting eight years before winning another European knockout game.
However, if he can lead West Ham United to victory over Sevilla, opponents who he considers the toughest of the Europa League play-off victors, that long wait will be over.
Moyes’ time at Old Trafford represented one of a number of failed managerial appointments, and his struggles meant his next two jobs - at Real Sociedad and Sunderland - didn’t carry European responsibilities.
In order to earn another chance, the Scot had to do all the work himself, taking West Ham to a top-six finish and group win to set up a meeting with the 2020 Europa League winners.
Now, rather than using an inherited group of players, he is able to call upon a squad which is very much his own as he aims to learn lessons from that two-legged affair some eight years ago.
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Sevilla have won the Europa League more times than any other club, prompting Moyes to claim “We’ve probably got the toughest game in the round,” but the opposite was the case in 2014.
While Man Utd had lagged behind domestically, sitting outside the top four for almost all of the Premier League season, the Champions League had offered their under-pressure manager some welcome relief.
Moyes’ side won their group ahead of Bayer Leverkusen, Shakhtar Donetsk and Real Sociedad, going unbeaten in the process, to set up a meeting with an Olympiacos side who only reached the last 16 thanks to a superior head-to-head record against Benfica.
The Greek side had also lost top scorer Kostas Mitroglou in January, with the striker joining Premier League strugglers Fulham, but still managed to pull off a surprise first-leg victory over the reigning English champions.
Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward had taken a photograph of the scoreboard at the Karaiskakis Stadium, pledging that things would never get as bad again after a particularly low point in the season.
The worst thing about the defeat in Greece was that it wasn’t even especially close. Joel Campbell, on loan from Arsenal, starred for the hosts and scored the second in a 2-0 win which put United in a chastening position: if they wanted to go through, they’d need to overturn a two-goal first leg deficit for the first time in 30 years.
United’s preparations couldn’t have gone much worse, with Liverpool claiming a sensational 3-0 victory at Old Trafford just three days before the game, but the manager hadn’t given up hope.
“The first thing I mentioned to the players is we need to start giving something back,” Moyes said ahead of the return leg at Old Trafford, insisting he was not worried about his future.
"If we can go through it would be a massive lift. We know we have got ourselves in a poor position being 2-0 down.
"We need to work together to make it a night to be remembered. We will leave nothing behind.
"I think Manchester United is the biggest club in the world, it might not feel like that today, but this club has had great success in the past and will do again in the future. It will rise again."
Whether these words came from a place of blind faith or genuine belief, something clicked when the United players stepped onto the pitch.
United attacked from the get-go, with Wayne Rooney hitting the post early on, but they needed help from their visitors to get their noses in front.
As Robin van Persie attempted to control the ball inside the visitors’ area, he was needlessly barged to the ground by Jose Holebas and picked himself up to score the resultant penalty.
However, with the away goals rule in play, an equaliser on the night could have been devastating, and a big double save from David de Gea - denying David Fuster and then Dominguez - was needed to keep United in the tie.
And the intervention looked even more significant when, on the stroke of half-time, Van Persie was first to Wayne Rooney’s cross to score his second of the night and level things up on aggregate.
The next 45 minutes was poised to be huge for the English club and their embattled manager, but in the end they needed less than 10 to get their noses in front when Van Persie’s free-kick wrong-footed goalkeeper Roberto - who would later play under Moyes at West Ham - and nestled in the back of the net to send Moyes’ men through.
“After Sunday’s performance and result, we needed to bounce back, and I thought we’ve done it with style tonight” Moyes said , referring to the Liverpool loss.
“We played very well and deservedly got our victory.
“It’s a big job, I’ve got a lot of things I need to do and it’s going to take time to happen, but tonight more importantly I thought the players gave the crowd something after Sunday, and I thought the crowd responded brilliantly well.”
He was full of praise for Van Persie in particular, saying “To score a hat-trick in the Champions League is a big thing, and I think there’s only certain players in the world who are capable of it, and Robin van Persie is one of them”.
The quarter-final tie with Bayern Munich proved a step too far for Moyes and his team, though, with the Bundesliga side scoring three second half goals in Bavaria to clinch a 4-2 aggregate win after Patrice Evra had briefly put United in front.
Another defeat less than a fortnight later, this time against the manager’s former side Everton in the league, spelled the end of the manager’s time in charge, setting up a nomadic existence over the years which followed.
Eight years on, though, Moyes has another chance to show he has learned from his Manchester United experience. What’s more, he’ll know a first leg defeat might not mean the tie is over.
