Marcelino said it will be tough to pick up points against Real Madrid, especially with five players injured
Villarreal CF manager, Marcelino García Toral, regretted the number of injuries in his side upon their visit to Real Madrid this Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabéu (10pm CET). Despite that, the manager guaranteed they will play with maximum belief: “Madrid are playing well at the moment, finding the back of the net easily, especially at the Bernabéu. We’re going there with all the hope in the world to make things very difficult for them. We hope they don’t have a good day, but in the Santiago Bernabéu stadium they’ve been really solid, particularly in this final stretch of the season”.
The Submarine already picked up a big point at the Bernabéu last season and Marcelino also won there when he was managing Recreativo de Huelva. “I don’t know how many years it has been since I won there with Recreativo, but it was unexpected. It’s always difficult to go to the Bernabéu. Villarreal have never won there. Last season we were written off but managed to get a good result there. There is a clear favourite, but then you’ve got to follow that favouritism up on the pitch”, Marcelino commented.
According to the manager, the injured Yellows will not dampen the team’s spirits: “It’s not the best time for us to go and get our first win at the Bernabéu, but that’s football. To do it we will have to be very effective. We have a few problems when it comes to choosing players as we’ve got so many injuries. We are going to play our third match in six days and this makes it even harder. The sum of all these circumstances mean we’re not going there in an optimal situation, but of course with every hope of taking away something positive”.
To finish, with regard to analysing Madrid, Marcelino stressed the Whites’ potential: “They are a great team that can beat anyone. Their lack of consistency has stopped them from winning as many titles as they should have, but they have potential and then some. The only thing that we can hope for is that they don’t play to their maximum intensity and aren’t as solid as usual on the day. We always give every team a good game, in fact this season we’ve got good results against the best teams at home. They will be 90 very difficult minutes. We will try to take advantage of the inconsistencies that Real Madrid almost always have”.
