First team

MERCADO: 'WE NEEDED TO WIN TO NOT HAVE TO DEPEND ON OTHERS AND WE MANAGED IT'

13/12/2018

The Argentine defender cautiously looked ahead to what's to come in the Europa League: 'If you make a mistake now, you could be going out and we'll work to stop that from happening'

Gabriel Mercado was interviewed after the win that saw Sevilla qualify for the next round in Europe against FC Krasnodar. The Argentine defender said that the team were satisfied at the end of the match: 'We're happy. We needed to win to not have to depend on other teams and we managed to do that. The match went in our favour after Ever's penalty and the sending-off, but Krasnodar were in control throughout the group stage.'

He spoke about the fast start made by the team: 'It was important to start well and to not slip up at the back and that was what you saw, a Sevilla with attitude and with the desire to win the match.'

Despite the great result, Mercado believes that the team should continue to focus on improving: 'We have to improve at playing matches in the same way both at home and away from home because if you make a mistake now you could go out and we'll work to stop that from happening.'

To conclude, he made it clear that the team are already thinking about the match this weekend against Girona FC: 'There's very little to go until Sunday. We have to recover for a very important match in the league where we need to win against another difficult opponent.'