MENDILIBAR: "OUR OPPONENT WILL RESPECT US BECAUSE OF WHAT THIS CLUB HAS ACHIEVED IN THE COMPETITION"

José Luis Mendilibar has in front of the media at Old Trafford. The Sevilla coach, who will make his debut in a European competition tomorrow, highlighted his personal excitement and that of the group ahead of facing Manchester United: "It's my first match in Europe, I am approaching it with a lot of excitement and a desire to get a good result here. That is what we are going to compete, and with all respect to our rival, we want to beat them. I am sure that they respect us because of what we have achieved in this competition. We know that this tie will be decided over 180 minutes, but our focus is on tomorrow."

In a similar fashion, the Basque coach noted how the team keeps on improving: "I think that we are getting players back from injury, who are joining the rest of the group in training and that is going to help us to be more competitive. We are only focused on tomorrow, because we know that those who don't play tomorrow, will on Sunday and that will be the same for United."

He also spoke about the English team but preferred to focus on Sevilla: "We have to play according to our strengths, and not focus too much on theirs. They are very athletic, have some very good players and a big budget. But the history of this competition tells us that when Sevilla are underdogs, they find a way to come through these ties. We can't speculate, we have to go out to win and be in their half, and then we will see how the match develops. There will be moments to defend and also times when we must put pressure on them. We have trained to be able to pay in their half of the pitch." 

"We have to play according to our strengths, and not focus too much on theirs"

Getting back to the fitness of his players, he highlighted the day-to-day work of the players, without specifying exactly who is available for selection tomorrow: "As time progresses, I see a team more determined to see out what we are asking of them. I am not saying that that is better or worse, but different. They are training very well, with a good rhythm, they are focused on each training session and I am happy with this. It's for this reason why I saw we must focus on ourselves more than our opponent. I respect whoever we play, but I am sure that they also respect Sevilla FC because of what we have won in this competition."

He was also asked about the absence of Marcus Rashford, something that he did not wish to place too much importance on: "Our defenders will have to respect whoever they come up against. We have been training the same, we know about the injury over the weekend but we haven't changed our tactics because of the absence of one player because anyone could start. I respect whoever plays, because whoever starts will be very good." 

To close, he assessed the two-match suspension Marcos Acuña has received as of this morning, speaking about it as he did when the match finished on Friday: "At the end of the day, if they send you off, you have done something wrong. I don't know if it's minimal or he has done something very wrong, but we can't just be handing out red cards and yellow cards. It's the same as taking your shirt off, I don't understand these things, we have to be careful because at the end of the season, the table takes all of these things into account and we have not done well in this sense."