Red Bull Salzburg have issued an apology after footage of a dressing room speech emerged following their historic victory over Sevilla in the Champions League on Wednesday night.The Austrian champions qualified for the competition’s knockout stages for the first time in their history, overcoming 10-man Sevilla 1-0 and confirming second spot in Group G.In the aftermath, a clip captured a fired up speech being given to the squad which contained expletives aimed at their Spanish opposition.The video, a recording of an Instagram Live, was shared on Twitter and is said to contain the phrase “Spanish w****r”.Salzburg responded to the tweet almost immediately, apologising for the language used and adding that emotions had spilled over in the wake of their win."In the emotion of what was for us such an extraordinary success, words were uttered that should not have been,” They wrote."Today we played against a strong and fair opponent to whom we sincerely apologise for the choice of words. Excuse us."
The club followed up the apology in a separate tweet commending and paying tribute to the achievements of their opponents.
“Thank you/muchas gracias @SevillaFC_ENG! What a pleasure it was to battle again with an absolute top-quality team! All the best for the rest of the season!” The club continued.
Speaking after the match, Salzburg midfielder Brenden Aaronson said: "There's so many emotions that go into it. I think I already lost my voice and the celebrations are starting. It's so well deserved, this group deserves it, this club deserves it and it's an amazing, amazing feeling.
"It was very hard. Sevilla are a world class team and they've won Europa Leagues, they've won all these top trophies so it was such a hard game for us but to come through and get the win like we did is amazing and I'm proud of the boys.
"I think we just finished our chance when we got it, I don't think we had too many clean looks on goal but we got it, we scored and we won.”
Salzburg must now wait until Monday’s draw to find out who they will face in the last 16, while Sevilla will drop into the Europa League after the result.