The Villarreal manager underlined his happiness with the work put in against Atlético
Villarreal manager Javi Calleja hailed his men’s hard work in the goalless draw against Atlético Madrid (0-0). For the head coach, the Yellows worked hard to get a worthy point: “You have to analyse every game, we were facing one of the best sides in Europe, and because of that, I’ll go away happy, with both the performance and the game. There have been moments when we were better than the opponents and we could have gone away with the match won, as was the case against Valencia. This is the path to follow.
Villarreal once more kept a clean sheet. “Atleti could have set up with four midfielders and use quick attacks with Morata and Joao Félix. Despite that, we defended well, apart from a few dangerous moves from Saúl, but the team was generally solid and balanced,” he analysed.
Regarding controversial moments from the game, Calleja was frustrated that the referee failed to give Villarreal a penalty: “Watching the piece of play with Moi, from the bench I heard the contact. It’s a clear penalty, the referee decided it was dangerous play and you have to respect the referee’s decision. Things like that have been going against us all year. They’ve also told me that Iborra was being pulled, but neither VAR no the referee got involved. From my point of view, we are being affected negatively by VAR, but we just have to hope they will blow up.”
To listen to Calleja’s full press conference in Spanish, click play.
