Peque: 'Favourites? That's for you lot to decide — the pitch is what matters'
Sevilla midfielder Peque opens up ahead of Sunday's Seville derby, on the relegation battle, Betis' favourites tag, and why a draw simply won't do.
Sevilla’s Gerard Fernández ‘Peque’ has been refreshingly straight-talking ahead of Sunday’s Seville derby, brushing off Betis’ favourites tag and insisting the only thing that counts is what happens on the grass.
Ready for his fourth derby
Peque sat down with Radio MARCA Sevilla this Thursday and covered pretty much everything — the relegation scrap, the closed training session, defensive improvements, and the unique electricity that surrounds a Seville derby. This’ll be his fourth taste of it, and you can tell he gets it now.
He arrived at the club with certain expectations that haven’t quite matched reality — he’s honest enough to admit that — but his attitude is spot on: deal with where you are, not where you thought you’d be.
The relegation battle in plain English
Sevilla nicked three points at Getafe last weekend, and Peque was clear about what that means in such a congested bottom half:
- A single win doesn’t just put distance between you and one team, it leapfrogs you past several at once
- Consistency has been the key word in the second half of the season — they’ve dropped points in just one game since the winter
- He’s emphatic that even a single point could end up being the difference between survival and the drop
The lad’s not panicking, but he’s not kidding himself either. This is a proper dog fight and he knows it.
Betis favourites? Don’t care, mate
This is where Peque really caught the eye. Asked about Betis coming into the derby in a stronger league position, he was almost dismissive — in the best possible way. “Lo que manda es el césped” — the pitch is what decides it. He’s not interested in what the pundits or the table say going in. Fair play.
It’s a good mindset. Derbies are notoriously difficult to predict, and Betis being higher up the table means absolutely nothing once the whistle goes.
Closed doors and full focus
Sevilla opted for a closed training session at their training ground ahead of the match — a deliberate choice to keep things calm and controlled rather than ramping up the intensity unnecessarily. Peque was clear: get too wound up before a derby and it works against you.
The players who grew up in Seville have been doing their bit too, helping the newer arrivals understand just what this fixture means to the city.
A draw? Not a chance
For all the talk about how important every single point is in a relegation battle, Peque flat-out refused to say he’d settle for a point on Sunday:
- He acknowledged draws have value in their situation
- But he was unequivocal — if you go into a match thinking about drawing, you’ll end up losing
- Three points is the only acceptable target
That’s the mentality you want from your players heading into a derby. Sevilla need the lift, the fans need the lift, and Peque sounds like a man who genuinely believes they can get it.