Sevilla relieved to snatch point at Liberec

Víctor Machín struck late for Sevilla FC following the dismissal of FC Slovan Liberec goalkeeper Přemysl Kovář as the Spanish side clung on to top spot in UEFA Europa League Group H. It was a relief for the visitors, but an agonising finish for Kovář and team-mate Jíří Fleišman.

Diego Perotti, Sevilla forward
It was a difficult game for us. We were a goal down and finished up with a draw. One point keeps us top of the table and this is positive. I think we played well. After the red card we could have won it; we didn't manage that, but we are still leading the group.

Liberec are a very decent side. We were a bit surprised by their defensive tactics – they sat back when we expected them to attack more. But we know that we do our best in this competition, and we did that today.

We were a bit desperate at one point when we were a goal behind, but we kept trying and hoped that our chance would come. And it did, though we were a bit lucky. We had chances to score a winner at the end. It is a positive result for us.

Victor Machín, Sevilla midfielder
It was a tough match for us, but with a bit of luck we managed a draw. We did not lose top spot in the section but of course we are a bit disappointed because we wanted to win.

The draw is a valuable result for us. I know it took us a while to understand Liberec's tactics and open the game up. They scored and we sought to strike back, but Slovan locked their defence tight. We know they are very strong at home and it is hard to score against them here, but all the team put all of their effort into it. Even that one point is important.

Přemysl Kovář, Liberec goalkeeper
Sevilla are very strong on the ball and we knew they would try to pass quickly. We relied on counterattacks and one of them worked out nicely – Michael Rabušic scored beautifully and we were one up. It is a pity that we did not manage to score from another promising attack in the second half – Josef Šural was there all alone. But before the game we were saying that a point would be fantastic, and at the end we have it.

Although we are disappointed not to have won, the point will be worth something. We were just five minutes from getting a fabulous victory so you can imagine that everybody was unhappy in the dressing room. With time this point will prove to be precious.

Jíří Fleišman, Liberec defender
We wanted to defend stoutly and score on the counterattack and we managed to do that. Unfortunately we conceded a goal late on. If somebody told us beforehand that we would get a point from this game, we would have been happy; seeing how things went, we very disappointed.

Sevilla showed today how strong they are – when they wanted to they put us under huge pressure around our penalty box. The game in Sevilla will be even tougher as they will have their fans behind them. I think that we have no other option than to try to apply the same tactics.