Unai Emery has reiterated that Sevilla’s Europa League tie with Villarreal lasts 180 minutes and, as such, isn’t over after the first leg.
Sevilla lead 3-1 from last week’s meeting at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan but ahead of the return leg, the Coach has spoken of the need to stay focused.
“We work on a basis of trust. We have to keep that, but without the confidence that makes us think that we’ve done it,” Emery said, AS reports.
“We said we had to compete from the first minute to the 180th minute. We knew it wasn’t going to be decided in 90 minutes.
“They can do in our stadium what we did in theirs. They’ve proven they’re a good team, they dominated a lot of the game and they’ve beaten rivals in the League for good results. We have to give continuity for what we did in the first leg.
“What we did in the first leg doesn’t matter for the return. We have to show we are better than them overall. We have experience of this, like in the Copa del Rey, and Arsenal almost turned around their tie.”
Sevilla and Villarreal also meet in the League on Sunday but Emery insisted his mind was only on the European encounter.
“[Thursday’s] game is more important, as it’s the next one. We’re excited to play Thursday and Sunday and to be in two competitions,” he added.
“Villarreal are a team that always affects their rival’s game. We want to have the game where we want it but that won’t be easy because our opponent will also influence how the game develops.”
