RAKITIC, KOUNDÉ AND LAMELA: "DISAPPOINTED" WITH THE DEFEAT AGAINST REAL MADRID

Ivan Rakitić, Jules Koundé and Erik Lamela spoke to club media after the defeat against Real Madrid. After the fateful night at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, Rakitić was the first up to speak: "It's a really tough defeat. We're sad - I think we played great but they also got going in the second half. We have another game on Thursday - we have to thank our fans and apologise. We will get back up against Levante UD."

Going into more detail, our goalscorer on the night analysed the night's events: "They started to press more and we couldn't play out as well as in the first half - we need to believe more in ourselves. They score the first goal out of nothing and then things happened. We need to get back on our feet and ask the fans to be with us in our goal to qualify for the Champions League. We never want to lose and the fans were really spectacular tonight." Ivan was lastly asked about Camavinga in the first half: "I think it's a clear foul, a second booking and I cannot understand how they have interpreted the way they did, Martial gets injured... It seems as if all these things go against us but we can't rue our sorrows. That's the way it was and hopefully in the coming games these things go back to being in our favour. Now every match is a final for each team and we need to have a good mentality."

Jules Koundé was critical in his comments: "We're disappointed and annoyed - we can't play two different halves like this. In the first half we were so good, full of intensity, ambition, we played well and caused them problems and then we threw it away in the second half. We lacked character, personality on the ball after our efforts in the first half. When you aren't able to keep the ball and pressure up against these teams, this happens. It really hurts the way we lost it. It's down to our lack of character in the second half. They did get better and played with more ambition and intensity, but we dropped back too much. It's hard to explain because we were so good in the first half. Then we couldn't get on the ball and we lost possession and confidence. We threw the second half away."

"We were good in the first half and then we lost control of the ball and our confidence"

It is a tough defeat for Sevilla fans: "We're proud of the fans and we're disappointed because we weren't up to the same level as them. They gave us so much and it could have been a great night. We failed in the second half full of errors and devoid of character. We're disappointed with the defeat and also for our fans, we wanted to give them this win." And now, Levante are next up: "It's an important game because of how we have to react. It hurts, but in a few days we have another game and we have six finals to get ourselves in the Champions League which has always been our objective. I'm convinced the team will get back up because we've done it before after tough defeats. This team always fights and I'm sure we'll play well against Levante." To finish up, he spoke about Camavinga's action in the first half: "It's a clear foul. If he gets his second booking, that changes the game but we can't focus on that if we didn't do our job in the second half."

Erik Lamela was also annoyed: "I'm hurt because we put in a great effort and we came away with no points. But we have to lift our heads and we're back in training tomorrow. We have another game in four days and we have to keep going. We were great in the first half, very compact in both phases and that's how we came away with that score. The second half was completely different and we have to analyse what we did wrong, be critical with ourselves and try to improve because we have six games left." Real Madrid also made life difficult for the team: "They were very good in the second half, but we didn't start well. In four minutes they score and we couldn't get hold of the ball. We played too deep and away from their goal. The game went on like that and we let them take control, which was the opposite to what we did in the first half. That decided the game and when you don't play your very best against these teams you suffer and that's what happened. It's a shame we couldn't get the win and give something to our fans. The stadium was full and they kept us going until the end. We're thankful for them and we will fight until the end." Now, attentions turn to Thursday's match: "They're down in the league and need to win points, just as we do."