ESCUDERO: “THIS PRE-SEASON HAS TO BE JUDGED AS A SUCCESS”

Sergio Escudero opened the scoring for the home side last night against AS Roma, and showed his happiness: “On such a special day, to score the first goal of the night and my first of the season... I'm very happy. The tribute was very special, which is what it was all about, because Puerta deserves it. And we achieved the victory, which we dedicate to him”.

It was a night in which his link-up play with Nolito was key, the latter providing the assist for his goal: “You have to understand each other well, but with him it's very easy”, affirmed the left-back.

"The team is pretty good, we know how we want to play"

As for the team, Escudero stated that “you can see that it's pretty good, we're starting to understand what everyone wants, how we want to play, and for that, pre-season has to be judged as a success”.

Finally, he denied that Sevilla FC are favourites for the first official fixture of the season against Istanbul Basaksehir in the Champions League play-off round: “You do not have to be a favourite. You have to respect any opponent. If they are here it's because they too have earned it, as we have. We have to be very alert to this team so that they don't surprise us”.