OMNISPORT

Ever Banega was thrilled to reward Sevilla for their faith in him by helping the club to a third straight Europa League title and refused to discuss his potential move to Inter.

The 27-year-old started the match in Basel as Unai Emery's men made history with a 3-1 victory over Liverpool and was only replaced deep into stoppage time.

Banega has been heavily linked with a move to Inter and the Serie A side's head coach Roberto Mancini indicated this week that a deal had been done, even though the player's contract status is unclear with Sevilla believing his appearances have triggered a one-year extension until the end of 2016-17.

But the Argentina international was only interested in discussing Sevilla's success after the match as he made it two Europa League medals in as many seasons since joining from Valencia in August 2014.

"Inter? I repeat, I only want to talk about Sevilla because of the respect I have for this club," Banega said to Sky Italia.

"We still have to play an important game against Barcelona and I am very grateful to Sevilla because they helped me at a particularly difficult moment in my career.

"They gave me a lot of faith and I wanted to return it. Now I'm only thinking about this club - I have a lot of respect for them.

"I'm happy for the fans, we are delighted about this victory, the third in a row for us.

"The first half wasn't simple at all, but then we improved. Unai Emery didn't need to motivate us at half-time, we knew we could win and still had 45 minutes to play."

Following their success, Sevilla face Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final at Vicente Calderon on Sunday.