Sevilla coach Julen Lopetegui has exploded against what he deems to be a loaded schedule according to Sport.
Speaking after his team squeaked past Osasuna by a single goal – to ensure he couldn’t be charged with making excuses – and visibly angry, Lopetegui did away with diplomacy and spoke forthrightly.
Sevilla had hosted Krasnodar in the Champions League on Wednesday night, after which they were faced with a 72 hour turnaround for the second consecutive week. The same had happened between the European clash with Rennes and the league trip to Athletic Club.
“The artist must be taken care of,” he said. “You can’t kill the cow – you have to take care of the players. It’s incomprehensible that we had to play again less than 72 hours against an opponent that had been preparing for the game for eight days – we should have played them [on Sunday].”
Sevilla lost both full-backs – Jesús Navas and Marcos Acuña – to muscle injuries in the first half, forcing Luis Enrique to replace the former in the Spanish squad for the upcoming international break.
Youssef En-Nesyri, their Moroccan forward, also left the field injured. Sevilla now await the results of tests to ascertain the extent of the damage done to their three injured players and to find out for how long they’ll have to do without them.
The Andalusians face Celta Vigo at the Sánchez-Pizjuán following the international break before travelling to Russia to face Krasnodar in the Champions League three days later.
Featured image courtesy of World Football Summit.
