LOPETEGUI: "THE RESULT IS THE LEAST IMPORTANT THING, WE PUT IN A GREAT EFFORT"

Julen Lopetegui was happy with his side's performance, particularly in the first half, in the penalty shoot-out win against Sporting CP this evening in Lisbon.

In particular, the coach was impressed with the team's showing against a side who had played nine pre-season matches already, compared to one for Sevilla, the 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur.

"The result is the least important thing, what's most important is how we're feeling. The team had their second pre-season match, this was Sporting's tenth, so they've got more of a rhythm than us, but we put in a great effort".

"In the first half we really were on top, but they had their moments on top in the second half. We knew how to dig deep, and our aim is getting minutes under our belt, getting into the game, working hard and improving on concepts. The fact there are no injuries is the most important thing, now we keep going".

"Suso hasn't played since 20th November, it's good for him to feel like a player on the pitch"

Speaking of injuries, he was delighted with the return of a key player in Suso.

"Suso hasn't played since 20th November, it's good for him to feel like a player on the pitch, even if it was only for 15 minutes, he's leaving that bad spell behind him and he's feeling like a good player, because he is".

"We need him and I hope that he can gradually find his rhythm and get into shape so that he can help us".

"We're going to make use of what we've got to get to the first game as fit as possible"

Julen wants his players to get minutes under their belt, and spoke about what lies ahead next week.

"Some players reached 60 minutes today, and in our next match other players will do so. We want to arrive in England with a base to be able to get more minutes there in matches on two consecutive days".

"Maybe having another match would have been useful for us, but this is how we've approached pre-season and we're going to make use of what we've got to get to the first game as fit as possible".

"It's another match against a team with more minutes under their belt than we do"

For Sevilla, attentions now turn to Wednesday's friendly against Angers SCO in the Algarve.

"It's another match against a team with more minutes under their belt than we do. We'll play them and, like today, try to do things well and take another step forward in our preparation".