Manolo Jimenez traces Sevilla's defeat to French goal king, Thierry Henry.


While recognizing that his boys played well in both legs against Barca, Manolo Jimenez spotted Rafa Marquez and Thierry Henry as the two players who were responsible for his sides defeat in the Copa del Rey. The coach was not in doubt that both sides had played well, but gave in to the defining moment which went as far back as the first leg when a 24th minute goal by Thierry Henry opened scores and sent Sevilla in the defensive up till the end of the second leg tie. Jimenez admited that:

Thierry Henry's goal was the decider of this two-legged tie between Barca and Sevilla.The tie was very even and was only unbalanced by the ability of two players one who passed the ball and the other who scored a great goal. That was the truning point.

The Coach was not short of praises for his own team as well, and also had some words of praise for the Barca defence:

We caused them a lot of problems and stopped them moving the ball about. We had four chances of our own and even had the ball in the net, only for it to be disallowed, but we just did not have any luck going forward. I think we saw the Sevilla team of old, despite the absences and I am very proud. Barça were very good defensively, but there was only one period when either team was dominant and that was in the second half of the first leg when we were.