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Bacca: patience was Sevilla's virtue

Carlos Bacca and Jairo Samperio were unanimous in their praise of Sevilla FC's probing football after the Liga side were made to work hard to break down ten-man SC Freiburg.

Bacca: patience was Sevilla's virtue
Bacca: patience was Sevilla's virtue ©UEFA.com

SC Freiburg might be forgiven for thinking that Carlos Bacca was the key to Sevilla FC's hard-fought 2-0 win, a result which kept the Spanish side top of Group H.

However, the Columbian striker – who earned the penalty from which Diego Perotti scored the opener and then went on to add the second himself – told UEFA.com that the victory owed everything to his team staying calm and focused. Meanwhile, Gelson Fernandes, a tireless worker throughout, believed that Freiburg's chances disappeared with Fallou Diagné's red card.

Carlos Bacca, Sevilla forward
Freiburg were very sound defensively and kept their two lines of midfield and defence very close together. However, I liked the patience we showed and this is further evidence that the team is on the up and we're playing well. All week, we talked about the need to stay calm and not lose our patience. I helped with the penalty but I'm here simply to work hard for the team and produce these kinds of moments.

Jairo Samperio, Sevilla winger 
It's one of my strengths that when a game is stretched I've got the capacity to open things up. This time my team-mate [Bacca] was better positioned than me to tuck the chance away so I teed him up. At half-time, we spoke about the need to show more patience and get the full-backs pushing up. We did lots of damage as the game went on and created a series of good chances. We have a number of central strikers in this squad who have a lot of goals in their boots, and I guess those of us whose job it is to create and provide assists need to be thankful for that.

Javi Varas, Sevilla goalkeeper
We could have finished the game off much earlier because we had plenty of chances. It was important to win at home and make it two victories out of two. At 1-0, there was always that risk that a counterattack could undo us. In fact, they got near our goal a couple of times but without creating a clear chance. We were comfortable today and worked hard enough. The Europa League is a very difficult competition; the rivals are important clubs and it's a lovely experience.

Gelson Fernandes, Freiburg midfielder
We played OK when it was 11 versus 11. We created some chances and played some nice football. But against a team which is so good, technically, if you are one player down then it's very difficult. We put ourselves in this predicament and once that happened it was difficult. There were a lot of players here from the Freiburg youth academy and they have to learn from experiences like this. I'm proud of them.

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