Real 3-0 Sevilla Chilean left frustrated after 3-0 defeat

Match Report: Real Madrid 3-0 Sevilla

James Rodriguez starts the year with a brace

It has been a miserable evening in Madrid for Jorge Sampaoli's Sevilla who endured a 3-0 Copa del Rey defeat at the hands of Real Madrid, althrough the Chilean coach believes that refereeing decisions hurt his side in the first-half.

Replays showed that there were officiating mistakes in the build up to both Los Blancos' opening and final goals of the evening.

In his post-match press conference the former Chilean national team coach refused to be drawn on an analysis of the refereeing mistakes but he did concede that they gave Real Madrid the edge.

"There are always decisions that can be analysed and I don't normally do that, I am not qualified to do so at such a distance but they made the difference for Real Madrid in the first half," he explained. "But overall, Real Madird were what made the difference."

A 3-0 deficit heading into the return leg makes for grim reading for the Andalusian side and the 56-year-old was under no illusions with regards to the difficulty of the task that awaits his side.

"We have to be more balanced, it will be difficult of course but we will try to make the home match more impressive than tonight, we will fight until the last moment," he said.

Real Madrid enjoyed a comfortable evening as Zinedine Zidane's Midas touch carried over in 2017, however the Chilean feels as though his team could have taken something from the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.

"I wasn't surprised by the pressure from Real Madrid but I was surprised that we didn't know how to overcome it, we had three very clear chances but we were beaten through a lack of build-up in our play."