First team

MACHÍN: 'THE FIRST HALF WAS ALMOST PERFECT BUT WE COULDN'T KEEP IT GOING'

23/02/2019

Sevilla FC's manager rued the two forced changes he had to make in the defence at the start of the second half

'Annoyed.' That was how Sevilla FC's manager, Pablo Machín, described himself as feeling at the end of the game against FC Barcelona: 'At the end of the day what you see is the result. But once more, injury time has served to make a result look worse than it is. It's something we have to correct. I always tell them that until the final whistle there is always a chance to score or concede. We were playing against one of the best teams in the world and the best player in the world who, on top of that, has our measure and seems even more motivated against us,' he said.

'He is decisive, that's why he's the best player in the world,' added Pablo Machín about Leo Messi. 'We should be happy with the fact that we did a lot of things well during the match, despite the fact we are annoyed we couldn't get the win. The players gave it their all. I can't ask any more of them. Our plan was working, we created lots of chances down the wings. But once more we have suffered setbacks with injuries and that affected our energy levels... We had to make two changes in defence which is not normal and then when we wanted to freshen some legs up in more physically demanding positions we were unable to.'

'I'm not saying it just as an excuse, the two injuries really hurt us. Wöber was playing really well, he was free out on the wing, he had lots of space to move into and he was finding Ben Yedder well in behind Busquets... The first half was almost perfect but we were not able to keep it up. We were up against a brilliant team who knew that they have to be at their very best against us,' he added.

And Machín is now looking to the future: 'We hope to rest well this week and get back to winning ways and out of this negative run.'