Denis Suárez believes that, despite the advantage, the Round of 32 tie is still “very even”
The Villarreal midfielder, Denis Suárez, was the star player in yesterday’s first leg of the Round of 32 Europa League as he scored the game’s only goal giving victory to the Yellows against Napoli (1-0), subsequently earning him the Mahou Five-star player award for his performance against the Italians. Happy about his goal but above all for the victory and the advantage the team now has in the knockout phase, the Galician stressed that now they have to defend this result with everything they’ve got. “I think we played really well, it was a seriously fought match by both teams and was very even throughout. It is a really important result which gives us an even better chance to qualify for the Round of 16, but the tie continues to be very even. We have to go to Italy ready and concentrated to defend this result to the death”.
Furthermore, the Submarine winger also talked about his goal, a real cracker of a free kick which Reina couldn’t do anything about. “I asked Bruno for the free kick because in training we practice free kicks and that’s usually mine and Roberto’s (Soldado) side, while Bruno usually shoots from the other side. I’m really proud to have beat as great a goalkeeper as Reina, but the most important thing is the result. The goal came from practice and what we have to do now is fight with everything we’ve got in San Paolo”.
Denis also spoke about the Yellows’ next league fixture, as they visit the Vicente Calderón stadium on Sunday to compete against Atlético de Madrid (8:30pm CET, live on Canal + Partidazo and Abono Fútbol): “Now we have to focus on LaLiga with the same intensity that stopped Napoli getting the victory against us. We have to defend fourth place, we’ll be playng against a very strong team at their home ground, but we are going completely convinced that we can defend the fourth place albeit at their stadium”.
