Jiménez talks up Sevilla status

Having won 3-0 at SK Slavia Praha to cement their place at the Group H summit ahead of fancied Arsenal FC, visiting coach Manuel Jiménez feels Sevilla FC must now be counted "among the best sides in Europe". His Slavia counterpart Karel Jarolím no doubt agrees, although he was more concerned with the effort of some his players in the Czech capital.

Karel Jarolím, Slavia coach
We knew all about the attacking power Sevilla have but hoped to capitalise on gaps in their defence. We were unable to do that despite several chances in the first half, and then we made some fatal mistakes. The injuries to Vladimír Šmicer and Ladislav Volešák made things more difficult for us after the break, while they improved significantly after Luis Fabiano came on. That said, some of our players didn't show the necessary fighting spirit tonight and we can blame only ourselves for not getting a better result.

Manuel Jiménez, Sevilla coach
Obviously I'm very satisfied with the result. We deserved it, particularly for our second-half performance. We were too slow in the early stages and were unable to respond to Slavia's midfield dominance. Then things changed and our higher tempo and play down the wings after the restart gave us control. The substitutions we made were also critical, changing things in our favour. We are among the best sides in Europe now and it's difficult to say who we might prefer to face in the next round. Now we have to forget about the Champions League for a while and focus on the league and Spanish Cup.