Sevilla manager Jose Luis Mendilibar has reacted to his side’s 2-2 draw against Manchester United.
Sevilla have a strong history in the Europa League, while manager Jose Luis Mendilibar was coaching his first ever European game.
At the start it looked like his side were totally outmatched, and he acknowledged it all went wrong early on.
Mendilibar told Marca: “They came out very quickly, the truth is that we were out of place, with many spaces between the lines.”
Sevilla fight back
Manchester United had gone 2-0 up through two early goals from Marcel Sabitzer. It was looking good for a substantial win.
Sevilla fought back into the game and Mendilibar explained this was down to tactical adjustments.
He said: “We have pushed higher up, we have placed ourselves between opponents to be able to jump from one to the other and we have done better.”
United were simply not ruthless enough. Erik ten Hag got it wrong with his substitutions, making too many, and the team lost intensity.
Errors began to creep in, which went unpunished, until Tyrell Malacia casually left a cross, which allowed Jesus Navas to fire the ball back at goal, which the Dutch defender deflected into his own net.
Mendilibar said he viewed this is as a mistake from the Netherlands international.
He explained: “The first was due to a mistake by the rival to let the ball pass and Jesus got there.”
The manager went onto add that he felt United then panicked. Losing Lisandro Martinez to injury saw the Red Devils go down to 10 men.
He commented: “With the tie and the Lisandro’s injury, they were more fearful, afraid, and asking for more time, without going beyond midfield. We had four or five extra minutes that we didn’t know how to take advantage of.”
Tyrell Malacia has been excellent since joining United and has filled in for Luke Shaw well. His error was a costly one, but one he will learn and grow from.
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