Unai Emery highlights the importance of the clash against Athletic Club to stay in the fight for the European places

Villarreal coach, Unai Emery, appeared at a press conference today to analyse the visit of Athletic Club to the Estadio de la Cerámica on matchday 31 of LaLiga (Saturday, 6:30pm CEST). The Hondarribia-born coach highlighted the importance of the league clash for the ‘groguets’, in which he expects the fans to be behind the team. These are the most important statements from the Villarreal coach:

Opportunities for the whole squad

“When you put together a team with a season in mind, we talk about having people ready in difficult situations. At this moment, we have confidence with everyone at a professional level to play at the levels that the team requires in each competition. There are moments and this is the right time to use alternatives to those we had on Wednesday, be it through suspension, injury or to manage fatigue”.

Focus on LaLiga

“I’m not going to give a different message, there may be certain details that change, but the message doesn’t change, LaLiga is the most important thing, it’s the one that marks the regularity and the one that marks where the main objectives are achieved. Now we’re playing for seventh place, which could give us access to the Conference League. It’s not the objective we had in mind, but we also have the objective of getting into the Europa League. We had the objective of the Champions League, but it has become very difficult for us. The Europa League has also become very difficult, but it is our objective.

Rival with many strengths

“Athletic Club is always difficult, we played a much better game there than the result says. The difficulty of this match would be on any matchday and in any context. I expect a demanding game, but also a good performance from us at home. It’s going to be a very difficult and long match, they are a team that defends and counter-attacks very well, but they also try to play. They have good players like Muniain and Sancet, who has grown a lot. Up front, Iñaki Williams is always a threat. Athletic Club is a team that is difficult to find space for”.

The ‘grogueta’ supporters are really behind the team

“The fans are excited about the Champions League and also LaLiga. They are with the team and that’s nice, to excite, to generate feelings of belonging. Tomorrow the Estadio de la Cerámica is going to be a very beautiful setting to see a match of a very high level”.

Villarreal CF, with CDS Vila-real

As a great novelty, Unai Emery’s press conference had simultaneous translation in Spanish sign language. The solidarity stand for tomorrow’s match against Athletic Club is destined for the Deaf Sports Club of Vila-real. 120 tickets have been distributed and 1.200 euros have been raised for the benefit of CDS Vila-real.

You can watch the full press conference by clicking on the image in the news.