Unai Emery has insisted that he was always confident his Sevilla side would reach the semi-finals of the Europa League following a dramatic second-leg clash with Zenit St Petersburg.
An early Carlos Bacca penalty handed Sevilla a 3-1 aggregate lead in Russia before goals from Salomon Rondon and Hulk set up extra time, but Kevin Gameiro struck late to clinch the win for the Spanish side.
Emery admits that he was keen to avoid extra time, but he claims that the defending champions were always hopeful of scoring again on the break in the closing stages.
"It wasn't a miracle," he told reporters. "It wasn't luck, we fought for the second goal when Gameiro came on.
"We had to wait for the moment. We managed to play the game with the difficulties that we had. We knew that it wasn't going to be easy.
"I didn't want extra time. I always believed that we could score another goal using our counter-attacks."
Sevilla are looking to become the first side to win the tournament in successive seasons since they managed the achievement in 2007.
Callum Mulvihill
