Marcelino and Mario analyse the UEFA Europa League tie against SSC Napoli
A challenge that Villarreal are excited about. The Submarine will host SSC Napoli this Thursday in El Madrigal (7:00pm CET) with the objective of achieving a positive result in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League Round of 32. The match sees the 4th team in the Spanish LaLiga table and the 2nd team in the Italian Serie A go head to head, in what is expected to be a thrilling encounter.
The Villarreal CF manager, Marcelino García Toral, says defeating Napoli will not be easy: “They’re a great team. They are demonstrating a very high level of competition this season. We have to face one of the strongest teams in the competition, but we are going to compete and try to score more goals than them to get through to the next round”.
According to the manager, both teams have the potential to go forward in the tournament: “When a knock out round starts, it’s always 50-50 and we believe this too. We don’t consider ourselves inferior. After both matches have been played we will see who was inferior. It’s the little things that can be the decider in a knock out fixture. Our intention is to get a positive result tomorrow to get to the next round”.
With regard to the kind of match he expects, Marcelino pointed out that it will be really intense: “I expect an intense, competitive and dynamic match. We are both teams that look to get to goal when we have the ball and track back quickly when we don’t. Our styles of play are quite similar”.
Marcelino also encouraged the Yellow supporters to fill the stands of El Madrigal this Thursday:
“We hope and wish for a packed out stadium and devoted to willing on the players, who deserve this support. This is a knock out tie which should be played later on in the tournament and is even superior to some of the Champions League ties. We will need the support of the fans because we will be playing against a great rival and we are a very young team.”
Mario: “We are very excited about this competition”
The other spokesman of the day in the Press Room at the Villarreal CF Training Ground was Mario. The left back from Alicante revealed the feelings of the squad prior to facing Napoli: “It’s a competitive knock out tie like the one we played some years ago. We are very motivated for these matches. When the competition starts, you always want matches like these to come along. When you face a great rival it’s a special kind of motivation. We are very excited for what is to come in this competition.”
Mario talked about the way to move on to the next round: “In the knock out legs away goals can make the difference. We must be very intense in our penalty box and the strikers are in charge of scoring to get the win”.
Finally, Mario also wanted to encourage the Yellow supporters: “I hope for a great atmosphere in El Madrigal and that the supporters help us every step of the way. Getting a positive result would be very important and to get it we need our supporters”.
