LONDON: When Juventus visit Benfica in the first leg of the Europa League semi-finals on Thursday, it will mark the first appearance for the once dominant Turin club in the final four of a European competition since finishing runners-up in the 2003 Champions League.

After the 2006 Italian match-fixing scandal and the subsequent relegation to Serie B, it’s been a long road back to continental prominence for Juventus, who are also striding toward their third successive Serie A title.

While Juve hold an eight-point lead in Serie A with four matches to play, they face a Benfica side which clinched the Portuguese title last weekend.

The winner will face Spanish opposition in the final itself, with La Liga rivals Sevilla and Valencia facing off in the other last-four tie.

Both clubs enjoyed success in the UEFA Cup — the predecessor to the Europa League — in the last decade, with Valencia lifting the trophy in 2004 before Sevilla won it in 2006 and 2007.

It isn’t the case though with Juve and Benfica as the two great clubs hoping to end long waits for a European trophy meet for the first time in more than 20 years.

Benfica have not lifted a continental trophy since winning the old European Cup in 1962 while Juve have not added any major European silverware to their trophy cabinet since the Champions League in 1996.

Despite their long traditions in European football, the teams have met only twice before, in the 1968 European Cup semi-finals and the 1992/93 UEFA Cup quarter-finals, when the current Juve coach Antonio Conte played in both legs of a 4-2 aggregate win for the Italians.

Benfica, beaten in last season’s final by Chelsea, have barely had time to celebrate the Portuguese league title which they won for only the fourth time in 20 years on Sunday by beating Olhanense 2-0.

The Eagles have been driven this season by the bitter memory of 12 months ago, when they found themselves on the verge of winning a treble of Portuguese league and Cup and Europa League, only to miss out on all three trophies in an agonising two weeks.

Now, though, Benfica have a possible quadruple in their sights as they are also into the final of the Portuguese Cup and the semi-finals of the Portuguese League Cup.

The Juventus stadium will host the final on May 14 in Turin and, as the only reigning domestic champions still standing, they are obvious favourites to win the competition.

“Many players in this team have never won a European competition and Juventus haven’t won a trophy in Europe for so many years,” Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio told UEFA.com.

Sevilla coach Unai Emery may relish the chance of eliminating Valencia, where the Spanish coach enjoyed four successful seasons before being released.

Emery led Valencia to three straight third-place finishes and, subsequently, into the Champions Leagues between 2008 and 2012 before leaving for Spartak Moscow. The club has not qualified for Europe’s top-tier event since.

It has been a difficult season of change for Sevilla but after a slow start where there was mounting pressure on Emery, the side has responded since Christmas and now they boast nine wins from 10 games in La Liga and are still pushing for a Champions League place.

“It will be a great tie. We know each other well, but you can’t say either side is the favourite,” insisted Sevilla’s Argentinean defender Federico Fazio.

Valencia’s season has been more inconsistent and disappointing performances, which led to the departure of Miroslav Djukic, have at times been overshadowed by their crippling debts.

New coach Juan Antonio Pizzi has failed to provide inspiration so far and now a run of one win in five games has left them down in eighth place in the Spanish table.

The Europa League gives Valencia the possibility to rescue a disappointing season domestically.

“Playing in Europe is a whole other matter,” Valencia midfielder Sofiane Feghouli said. “It’s a different style of play.”