Palop disappointed but not disheartened

With three minutes to go, Sevilla FC's path to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals looked clear. Heading for a 2-2 draw at Fenerbahçe SK, having twice come from behind, the task in the home return looked relatively straightforward. Then substitute Semih Şentürk struck for the Turkish champions, and Sevilla's job on 4 March became that bit more complicated.

'Bad feeling'
"We are returning to Spain with a bad taste in our mouths because conceding goals in the closing stages of games has become a bit of a habit for us and that is not good," said Sevilla goalkeeper Andrés Palop. "I think we controlled the match but right at the end we conceded the third goal and that is a bad feeling. But this result can definitely be reversed in our own stadium."

Cruel result
Diego Capel, who came off the bench to set up Sevilla's second equaliser, echoed those sentiments. "The result was too cruel for us," he said. "They just about had three attacks, and scored three goals. This makes me angry as we played well. The best team on the pitch were Sevilla. We were the better side but maybe we underestimated Fenerbahçe a little bit."

Dragutinović bullish
The most unfortunate man of all was Ivica Dragutinović, as Semih Şentürk’s hopeful effort took just enough of a deflection off the defender to wrongfoot Palop and put Fenerbahçe ahead in both teams' debut in the first knockout round. The Serbian international nonetheless remains bullish. "We have a better squad than Fenerbahçe and playing the return leg at home is a great chance to demonstrate that," he said. "A 3-2 defeat is not a bad result. We have a good opportunity to reverse this at home. I believe in my team."