“You have to play Juventus with patience and your head”

Jose Luis Mendilibar, Sevilla coach, trying to stay calm in front of his team’s important match against Juventus in the second leg of the Europa League semifinals this Thursday at Sánchez Pizjuán. The Basque coach explained the sensations he had about the possibility of entering a final and the rival he was waiting for in front of an atmosphere that was burning in favor of his team.

“The truth is I don’t know which team we’re going to find. I don’t know if he will come out waiting for us. A team like Juventus also wants to have the ball and hurt us. If we are very successful when it comes to pressing, defending, making it difficult for them to get the ball out, we will have our options… if they let us do that. If they play more directly and expect us to make the mistake of going against them, we also have to be patient, in everything”, explained Mendilibar in his official UEFA press conference.

The Basque coach assured that his team must not get carried away by anxiety. “We need to have patience, calmness and head, but without organizing and giving rhythm to the game, to the circulation of the ball, to the completions… It is not having the ball for the sake of having it. We want to get there”, argued the Sevilla coach.

Mendilibar was worried about the group’s over-enthusiasm before the atmosphere in the stadium. “Seems okay to me that the fans can have euphoria, because it is there, and we will see it tomorrow. But neither is the coaching staff neither do the players go crazy with the game”.

“The most important match of my career”

Finally, he was also asked about his career as a coach and the opportunity presented to him. “If I answer you for the people before me today, yes it was the most important game of my career. But I always say the same thing, they are all important. When I went up from Regional Preferred to Third, that was also the most important, because if not, we wouldn’t be here today.”