GARCÍA PIMIENTA: "WE ARE SEVILLA AND WE ARE USED TO COMPETING AGAINST EVERYONE"

Head Coach Xavier García Pimienta spoke at the pre-match Barcelona press conference. He began by saying “The squad is good. It has been two weeks since the last match and it was great to see how many were on international duty. They have all returned and we are happy and now we have a very demanding match against the leader and we have to be at 100% for this difficult challenge. We are Sevilla and we are used to competing with everyone. We're mentally prepared and convinced that we can compete with all the teams in the the league." 

"This is football and what matters are the results, but the confidence of the players reassures me. We went through a process of doubts in terms of results, leaving aside Vitoria, which can never happen, we had played well in the other games. "The players believe in the way we are training and the project and this is the way forward and it reassures me although we cannot relax, we have only played 9 games and we have to keep improving,” he added.

"We have to be resolute without the ball and when we have it, try to do what we want" 

Pimienta went on to say that “this Sunday's opponent is the best because that's what the standings say. They are the team that has the most possession and they have been playing like that for many years. We have to be very focused when they have the ball and be very solid, but doing what we want to do when we have the ball. If they have a difficult game, they suffer and what we want happens, we will have our chances and we have the quality to make it happen." 

“Statistics are there to be broken, I think it's about time and we're going to try our best to get those three points there,” on the test that awaits. 

"We have to know how to compete and be resolute, which we will have to be" 

“I expect a game where they are going to want the ball and attack us, put pressure on us up top and they do it very well with a very high line. A lot of the things they do are clever, so we have to be very cautious, don't get caught on that line so far forward that they catch us offside and try to use that as an advantage. We have to know how to compete and be resolute, which we will have to be," he continued.

“We have Sevilla Atlético with quality players and I see many of them on a day-to-day basis. What we are not going to do is to bring them up to the first team for the sake of bringing them up. It's a team that wants to achieve things and they have to earn it, but I'm not afraid to play them if one of them earns it and deserves it. Sevilla have a lot of academy players that can be first-team players one day," he finished by saying.