RAKITIC: "WE HAVE TO BE PROUD OF THE TEAM, WE FOUGHT WELL UNTIL THE END".

Ivan Rakitic, Álex Telles and Karim Rekik were in the spotlight after the draw in El Gran Derbi. On what happened at the Sánchez-Pizjuán on Sunday night, it was first the captain who said: "I think we fought well until the end, we have to be proud of the team. Once again we went for the three points until the last minute, I'm happy with the work we did and we have to continue in the same way from minute one. We live for these moments, the team is doing very well and there will be time to rest, we have to continue in this same vein."

"I don't want to say that the tackle on Jesús Navas was intentional, but I don't know why the VAR has to come in, as it's there to help and not to make decisions. Knowing him, it's going to push him more to be as good as he can...". As for his meeting with Frederick Kanouté and what that meant, the Croatian was very happy and grateful: "It was incredible to see Freddy after a long time. We all know what he means and I thank him for coming, the club for the great gesture and our people for accompanying me on such a special day. Everyone knows how I feel about Sevilla FC and our city and I could never have imagined reaching such numbers."

Álex Telles, on the other hand, spoke of mixed feelings after feeling like they were the better side: "We came away with a slightly different feeling because we played better, we had chances and the team always gave their best. We all give our best to reach a high competitive level... before entering the pitch we talked about the fans giving us strength and we always feel it, they are our 12th man and we have to be united to achieve our targets. We players have to focus on the game, the referee has his job to do, but it can't happen. We have to think about Elche and rest, I feel good and confident to help and continue at the highest level."

To close, the Dutch centre-back Karim Rekik wanted to highlight above all the second half of the Sevilla team: "We only missed one goal, we had chances to score because we were better in the game. In the second half we were better, especially after the red card, we pushed more, but we lacked that goal. I think Jesús Navas is fine, I hope he doesn't have anything serious... the team is fine, the atmosphere was crazy again and you enjoy it, you always go at 200%. Now we have to visit Elche and host Real Madrid, they are good games and we are going to try to qualify for Europe via LaLiga before the end, which would be the icing on the cake."