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MANCHESTER. — Jose Mourinho has revealed he told his Manchester United players that he was happy with their sadness following their Champions League soccer defeat to Sevilla.

United are out of Europe following a surprise 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford on Tuesday evening.

Sevilla capitalised on United’s sluggish display in the second half as Wissam Ben Yedder struck twice before Romelu Lukaku found the net to give the hosts a glimmer of hope.

“Of course everybody is sad, as I told the players in the dressing room, I’m happy with this sadness, I’m really happy with that,” Mourinho told MUTV.

“But we have no time to be sad for a long time, we have a match on Saturday. The players are back to the training ground, and focusing in an important match on Saturday as I was saying these two matches against Sevilla and Brighton, if you win you’re in, if you’re lose you’re out.

“I’ve sat in this chair twice before in the Champions League, and I knock Man Utd out at home twice, with Porto — Man Utd out, and with Real Madrid — Man Utd out. So this is nothing new for this football club.

“I don’t want to make a drama out of it, we don’t have time for that. We have a match on Saturday, we have no time to be sad for more than 24 hours. And that’s football, it’s not the end of the world.”

Mourinho said that United had failed to capitalise on a good start.

“I think the intention; the way we started was really good and really positive. Then after 10, 15 minutes after that success without goals, Sevilla has a good team and they can hide the ball.

“They have players in midfield who are really good at that. They tried to do that and did that for the majority of the time. In the first half I do not remember a dangerous situation for them, so I think it was a good controlled performance by them without any kind of danger.

“We had dangerous situations in the first half, and had again a good start in the second half and chances to score. Of course, the first goal always changes the direction of the game.

“Sometimes I am lucky with changes, sometimes other managers are lucky with their changes, and I think it was a good, happy move by Vincenzo to bring on Ben Yedder, and when they score the first goal the game is completely different.”

Mourinho also dismissed questions about why United had managed just four shots on target over the two legs.

“That’s stats, that’s statistics,” he said, before adding he was happy with the attitude of his players. “We always want more quality and movement but the players were completely free for that and we had good situations.” — AFP.