DBasia.news – Not only one goal behind, Sevilla also had to play with 10 players throughout the second half. However, all of these challenges can be answered by Los Nervionenses. Julen Lopetegui’s squad finally got up and closed the match with a 3-2 victory over their guest, Krasnodar, in the third match of the Group E qualifying phase of the Champions League, Thursday (5/11) am.
The match was not even a half hour in when Sevilla were two goals behind, each of which was scored by Magomed Suleymanov and Marcus Berg. While Suleymanov tore Sevilla’s goal through a free kick in the 17th minute, Berg managed to execute a penalty in the 21st minute.
Sevilla was able to reply through Ivan Rakitic’s header in the 42nd minute, but last season’s Europa League winners had to lose Jesus Navas in the first half injury time because of the referee’s red card. Sevilla coach, Julen Lopetegui, also described this condition as the worst possibility his team could get in a match.
“It feels like all the bad things that can happen in a match happened to us in the first half. Coming behind and missing one player as our form started to improve. However, this team showed such a good mentality in the second half, ” said Lopetegui as quoted from the club’s official website, Thursday (4/10).
Sevilla’s mentality was really tested in that match. Sevilla scored two additional goals for the rest of the match. Youssef En-Nesyri, who came on to replace Joan Jordan in the 60th minute, managed to score two goals, precisely in the 69th minute and the 72nd minute. Lopetegui also said that the success of turning things around and finally winning was inseparable from the strong mentality and character and determination shown by his players.
“Of course, we are happy when the players are able to score goals. However, the most important thing is the overall team performance. Not only that, this team showed the right mentality, character and determination in the second half. We deserve this victory, ” concluded the former Spanish national team coach.
The addition of three points in this match helped Sevilla maintain competition with Chelsea in the Group E standings. Both Chelsea and Sevilla have collected seven points from the first three matches in Group E. Sevilla will continue their steps on the Champions League stage this season when they visit Krasnodar headquarters at the end of November.