First team

LOPETEGUI: "THE RESPONSIBILITY LIES WITH THE MANAGER"

26/09/2019

"We focused more on containing Eibar instead of playing and we've been punished by three unusual goals"

Julen Lopetegui, the Sevilla FC manager, spoke to official media to analyse the defeat in Eibar: "In the first half we did what we had to do, we played football and showed personality. We knew that if there is a team, a stadium where they can come from behind, it is here. We were lazy defensively, we stopped playing. We focused more on containing Eibar instead of playing, and we've been punished by three unusual goals. When a team goes 2-0 up with 45 minutes to go and loses, the responsibility lies with the manager".

"Bad luck in football is around every corner. Today it came by conceding a penalty, Carriço's injury, Escudero picked up a knock in the second half, he did not know if he could continue or not. A lot went against us in that respect, but I assure you that, when you throw away a 2-0 lead, the responsibility lies with the manager".

The team started the second half looking like a different team to the one that finished the first half, despite "telling them at half time that we had to think of winning the second half, picking up where we left off. They pushed forward, that's clear, but we should have taken advantage of that. There was a series of unfortunate events meaning that we could not make subtitutions as we normally would in the second half and, in the end, I think that is one of the reasons why we lost. The first half performance was very good but we haven't been able to win".

"We lost the match and we had been firmly on track to win, we shouldn't have let it go but we have. We must learn, we have a very difficult match on Sunday against Real Sociedad and we have to be ready as quickly as possible. The countdown to that match starts now".