As cities go, Seville isn't one for hushed silences. The cultural capital of Andalusia, famed for its football, flamenco, and fiery temper rarely is witness to a quiet moment, doubly so within the Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan on a European night with Sevilla featuring. Yet, the city that hosts the remains of Christopher Columbus was stunned into silence by a 20-year-old American youngster, Ricardo Pepi - scoring a late, late goal that broke the hearts of many Sevillanos in attendance.
It had begun so differently - the prodigal Sevillano - Sergio Ramos had bundled in a 24th minute opening goal for a club in desperate need of a win. Still floundering in the league in 15th place, the UEFA Champions League had come to represent hope for Sevilla, and when Youssef En-Nesyri scored an excellent goal on the counter in the 47th minute to make it 2-0 - the non-existent roof blew off the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan.
Forty-five minutes later however, a deathly pall would greet a lone figure of Mexican-origin peeling off in celebration as PSV Eindhoven completed a brilliant comeback to win 3-2 and dump Sevilla out of the Champions League. The comeback owed much to Lucas Ocampos earning two yellow cards within three minutes and getting himself sent off in the 66th minute. Two minutes later, Ismael Saibari would drag PSV back into contention with a deft finish and when substitute Jorbe Vertessen forced Nemanja Gudelj to turn the ball into his own net, the cat was firmly among the pigeons at 2-2 in the 81st minute.
Enter Ricardo Pepi.
"To be honest, when I saw that we scored the 2-2 goal, I talked to Patrick [van Aanholt] and I said, 'This is our moment,'" said the American. "We felt like it was an important goal that we scored and we knew the winner was coming."
The winner was coming. Ten minutes after coming on, Pepi found himself in his own half, about to receive a bobbling ball with Ramos staying touch-tight to his frame. There was little hope of this turning into an attack. Yet, Vertessen gambled - watching the ball loop towards Pepi, he made a darting run towards the left channel, with Tanguy Nianzou grabbing on to him in a bid to stop the run.
Dream come true❤️❤️proud of this team🙏🏻🙏🏻🫶 https://t.co/fPBcSOzNfg
- Ricardo Pepi (@Ricardo_Pepi9) November 29, 2023
It would have fizzled out into nothingness had Ramos, veteran of so many UCL nights (and also the scorer of the 10,000th goal in the Champions League), gotten ahead of Pepi to intercept the ball. Yet, an ingenious volleyed backheel from the American saw the ball land perfectly in Vertessen's path and he was off. A quick push past Nianzou and the Belgian had shrugged his marker off, bursting down the left wing. Pepi hadn't forgotten his day job - he'd turned after his clever backheel and made a beeline towards the box.
The PSV pair ran in symphony - almost to the beating pulse of the flamenco - and Vertessen arced a beautiful cross into the box. Rising to the crescendo of the beat, Pepi towered above Marcus Acuna and produced a header that obeyed the one rule in page 1 of the centre-forward's textbook. 'Head it back from where it came' - and Pepi had looped a powerful header from the penalty spot into the top corner in the second minute of injury-time.
Marko Dmitrovic in the Sevilla goal could only watch the ball and his club's Champions League dreams sail by as the ball crashed into the goal-netting. The 20-year-old from the Americas had plunged the city from where once had sprung many attempts to discover his land, into total silence.
As players go, the lad from El Paso, Texas wasn't one for hushed silences either. Ricardo Pepi had just scored his first UEFA Champions League goal, had earned PSV Eindhoven's first away win in the UCL since 2007, and as he yelled out in celebration it was enough to drown out a city - thus making it ESPN India's UCL Moment of the Week.