The Villarreal CF head coach highlighted the physical demands of the final game of the year against the Catalan side (Sunday, 4:15pm CET)
Villarreal CF head coach Marcelino García Toral addressed the media this Friday, prior to the first-team training session, to preview the upcoming fixture against FC Barcelona, corresponding to Matchday 17 of LALIGA EA Sports, which will be played this Sunday at 4:15pm CET at the Estadio de la Cerámica.
The head coach began by discussing how the team has managed the aftermath of the last two matches: “Losing always hurts, especially when you don’t meet expectations. Defeats don’t define us, but they do teach us. They teach us, from humility, which aspects of our game we need to improve. Now we must put any negative thoughts aside and focus fully on the next match. We know we are a good team and the numbers back that up. We know the players’ commitment, ability and attitude, and I am very proud of them.”
Marcelino also explained that, in recent matches, the difference was decided in the penalty areas: “When a team wins, only the positives are highlighted; when it doesn’t, people talk about what is missing. In these last games, what prevented us from winning was decisiveness in both boxes. From humility, we have to improve and learn, but in LALIGA we are also the team that has conceded the fewest goals. That’s one of football’s paradoxes. It’s true that when we go behind, it’s as if we feel the need to equalise immediately. We are a young team and we still lack some maturity to deal with those situations more effectively.”
Looking ahead to the clash with FC Barcelona, the Yellow Submarine coach underlined the difficulty of the challenge: “Now, against Barça, we have a very tough match in which we want to compete in the best possible way. Barcelona demand a constant physical effort. They are the league’s top scorers and it’s very difficult. We have to compete and reach our best level, and at the end of the match be proud of the effort, and hopefully the result will be positive.”
