Sevilla boss Pablo Machin insists his “only focus is on raising the morale of my team” despite intense scrutiny over his future following their Europa League exit.
The Andalusian club – who had won the title five times since 2006 – were eliminated 6-5 on aggregate by Slavia Prague, who came from 3-2 down in extra time to win 4-3 in the Czech capital.
Many fans of Los Rojiblancos have now called for Machin’s dismissal with the team also lagging in La Liga in sixth place.
“I am hurt, but my only focus is on raising the morale of my team,” Machin told reporters, as cited by Marca.
“We have a very important battle on Sunday (away to Espanyol) and we have to recover emotionally in time to compete at our level.
“Sometimes football is very cruel and this evening we have suffered the cruel part of the sport, and we are hurting.
“The nature of the late goal proves this is not our season, we have suffered many adversities and had the game finished one minute earlier – we would be hailed for overcoming this is adversity.
“I am tremendously disappointed and hurt.”
