Jorge Sampaoli calls for Sevilla focus

Sevilla boss Jorge Sampaoli has called on his players to be "mentally prepared" for Saturday's La Liga clash against Real Betis.

Victory for Sevilla over their close rivals would take the Europa League winners above Real Madrid to the top of the table due to their superior head-to-head record over Zinedine Zidane's side.

Sampaoli, however, is well aware of the task facing his team this weekend, claiming that Betis will "raise their team" during the Seville derby.

"We have mentally prepared to go for the win and that will lift us up to the top of the table," Sampaoli told reporters. "If we win such a difficult match at this stage of the season, we will have achieved our objective, one that would allow us to dream.

"We didn't have the week to prepare for the most important game of the year. We played a very good game in the Champions League and we are trying to put Sevilla up amongst the top eight teams in the world. We are also aware of happened to Real Madrid in Valencia, and now today we have the possibility, the chance to realise our dream.

"This week is fundamental. We have dreams just like everyone else in football and of course we dream about going top, but we go into this game knowing it's going to be a difficult one and we face a very complex scenario because Real Betis are very strong at home, they raise their game against teams there and especially against us."

Sevilla have only lost four of their 23 league matches this season.