Sevilla's Champions League hopes not dead - Carcedo

Posted Monday, May 11, 2015 by Goal.com

The assistant coach is confident they can reach Europe's premier competition through the Europa League if they do not beat Valencia to fourth place

Sevilla assistant Juan Carlos Carcedo feels his side still have a great chance of qualifying for next season's Champions League, despite Sunday's 1-1 draw with Celta.

The Rojiblancos were without coach Unai Emery for the game as he left the camp earlier in the day after hearing of the death of his father.

Kevin Gameiro paid tribute to the boss after opening the scoring by holding a t-shirt which had a message of consolation, but the hosts were able to rescue a point when Santi Mina converted a penalty.

The draw leaves Sevilla in fifth, three points behind Valencia, who occupy the final Champions League spot in La Liga, with two games to go.

However, with his side in with a chance of reaching the Europa League final to challenge for a place in next season's premier competition, Carcedo is not worried just yet.

"The important thing is that we keep fighting until the last moment," he told reporters.

"We have several ways to reach the Champions League and the Europa League is close so we want to make that the priority. It was therefore important to refresh the team for this game."

"The important thing now is to recover for Thursday's game against Fiorentina because we expect a tough match. Our 3-0 lead from the first leg is very good but we cannot rely on it."

Emery's second in command was happy with Sevilla's performance on Sunday, but feels they would have won had they been able to go 2-0 before the decisive penalty.

"It was a very intense game, as expected. The key was that we had several opportunities in the first half to get the second goal but we had no luck."

"We knew that Valencia had earned a point against Real Madrid but we came into this after a very intense match on Thursday. We tried to change the team and the effort was noticed."

"We tried to dedicate a victory to Unai and his family but it didn't work out. Even so, I am proud of the whole team and I hope his family feels a bit relieved at this hard time."