Jorge Sampaoli pinpointed Sevilla errors against Barcelona but feels his side are improving because ‘we dominated a giant at home’ in the first half.
Sevilla were beaten 3-0 at Camp Nou for a 5-0 aggregate defeat in the Supercopa de Espana and started well in Catalonia, only to fall behind to Arda Turan’s first goal of the evening, the Turkey captain scoring a second after Los Rojiblancos lost the ball in their own half.
“We were able to make a difference in the first half and in the second we made two mistakes that allowed them to go ahead. The difference was definitely in the areas. There were conditions that harmed our mood in the second half. Barcelona hit us when we had to hit them and we weren’t able to do so when we had the opportunity,” Sampaoli said, AS reports.
The defeat comes after Sevilla also lost the UEFA Super Cup to Real Madrid but the summer appointment argued there was better on display against Barca.
“We played a very good game against Real Madrid and Barca was more complex, because we had to play 120 minutes. We didn’t take advantage of our game. We kept trying but never found what we wanted,” Sampaoli added.
“I don’t agree that we played worse than the match against Madrid. If you only look at the results, yes, but for example the first half at Camp Nou was better than the first half against Madrid because we dominated a giant at home. We had more forcefulness in attack against Madrid.
“We’re in a very complex stage because the pre-season preparations had to stop for two finals against the two best teams in the world. That caused us problems in the preparation and now we have only one day of training before Espanyol. We’ll have to name those who are more prepared to compete.
“We had to cut the work to prepare for the Supercopa. We’re starting to build an idea that I believe with time will allow us to adjust certain things. This team has a lot of youth but also a lot of ambition. We’ll look to win at home as we have in every game we’ve played so far. The search will strengthen what we’ve got.”
