First team

GUDELJ: "IT'S HARD TO EXPLAIN WHAT THE DERBY MEANS TO SOMEONE WHO HASN'T EXPERIENCED IT. IT'S CRAZY"

01/03/2022

"We hadn't experienced a derby with fans at home for a long time and I had such a desire to experience and feel it"

Sevilla FC centre midfielder Nemanja Gudelj was in the hot seat this Tuesday for a new edition of A Balón Parado. The Serb, who came on in the second half to replace for Diego Carlos, started out by recapping the game: "We hadn't experienced a derby with fans at home for a long time and I had such a desire to experience and feel it. It's really hard to explain what the derby means to someone who hasn't experienced it, like my mother, for example. I sent her some videos. It's crazy. Just before half time they told me to start warming up because Diego was struggling with a niggle."

"You get all charged up when getting out onto the pitch. It wasn't an easy game, it was a top level game and obviously there are games where it's easy to come into, but this wasn't one of those. All the the players that came off the bench, in every sense, did a very, very good job," Nemanja added.

"You could already hear the noise outside the hotel in the morning, spurring us on"

Gudelj also payed sentiment to the warmth of the fans when leaving the hotel: "I started to record it from inside the bus. I thought it would be impossible to top the atmosphere they created when we went to play at Betis; I was wrong, it was even better. Incredible. You could already hear the noise in the morning in the build up to it all."

"Joy, enjoying it all, goosebumps... To be out on the pitch winning a derby beside your fans is something incredible. I hope to experience it many more times. We were really looking forward to that game because of what happened prior to leaving the hotel, the fact we were at home and that we wanted to keep this home form up. The gaffer was really proud of us."

"I hope on Friday we can get the three points and I can get that goal I need to commemorate 100 games"

Gudelj reached 99 games for Sevilla against Betis: "I hope to make it 100 on Friday and getting the three points would be perfect. I still haven't scored, I had even scored more in Portugal than I have here at Sevilla and I played in the same position, that's when I am not playing makeshift centre-back. I feel I have more freedom playing in the number eight role."

"We all dream of winning LaLiga, but we have to be realistic. There are very good teams and we still have to play against Real Madrid at home. But our objective is to get Champions League football again. We are in good form and our focus is there. We will go game by game and further along the line we will see how far we can go," Gudelj concluded.