Reyes aiming to haunt Atletico
Reyes played a starring role as Sevilla ended a three-match winless run with a 5-1 thrashing of Real Betis last weekend, the 29-year-old scoring twice in the first half and also setting up Federico Fazio for his side’s fourth goal before making way just after the hour.
Reyes revealed Sevilla’s confidence has rocketed in the wake of that win, and is hoping they can capitalise on that with victory over an Atletico side who have the only remaining 100 per cent home record this season with six wins out of six.
The former Spain winger, who spent four years at Atletico before leaving in 2011, said: “We are highly motivated. Atletico are very strong at home, but we have our weapons and we’re going to try and beat them, even though we’re well aware of what they are capable of.
“The team have a tremendous desire and morale has been boosted after the derby. We are going to the Calderon with confidence sky-high.”
If Sevilla are to pick up three points from their trip to the capital they will need to improve on their poor away form so far this campaign, which has seen them earn just one win from six games.
“We don’t have an answer for that (their away form). The team always want to go out the same, but at times, due to our opponents or circumstances, we haven’t done it. We’ve always gone into matches with the attitude of trying to win, but we’ve not always achieved it.”
It is going to be tough for Sevilla, though, with Atletico looking back on track after a brief slump at the start of this month.
Successive defeats to Valencia and Academica brought Atletico down to earth following their 13-match winning streak, but since those setbacks Diego Simeone’s men have picked up three consecutive victories without conceding a goal.
The most recent, Thursday’s 1-0 home triumph over Hapoel Tel Aviv, earned the defending champions a place in the last 32 of the Europa League, and they did so without a host of first-choice players, including star striker Radamel Falcao, Arda Turan, Gabi, Juanfran, Filipe Luis and Diego Godin.
They are likely to return for Sunday’s visit of Sevilla where second-placed Atletico will hope to keep the pressure up on league leaders Barcelona, who are three points ahead.