Jesus Navas dedicates Sevilla's Europa League triumph to the late Jose Antonio Reyes

ByEnis Koylu

Published 21/08/2020 at 21:25 GMT

Sevilla captain Jesus Navas has dedicated his side's Europa League win against Inter Milan to the memory of the late Jose Antonio Reyes.

• Sevilla stun Inter to win Europa League in five-goal thriller

Reyes and Navas came through the ranks together at the Andalusian club, with the former leaving for Arsenal in January 2004 before eventually returning to the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

The former Spain winger died in a car crash last summer, adding another tragedy to that generation of the club's homegrown players following the death of Antonio Puerta from a heart attack in 2007.

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And Navas was quick to pay tribute to his fallen former team-mates after skippering his side to a gripping 3-2 win over Antonio Conte's men in Cologne.

"Being able to lift the trophy as captain of my Sevilla means so much to me, for friends who are no longer here, like Reyes," he said after full-time.

Navas was also keen to highlight the hard work of his team-mates and coach Julen Lopetegui after full-time.

"Lopetegui works 24 hours a day for Sevilla, he got the best out of us," he added.

"This squad deserves it. We fought all year, experienced the difficult situation, like everyone, tried to get through day by day.

The fans deserve it, those who love football like we do and we have to enjoy it.

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