The Villarreal manager is optimistic about the second leg in San Paolo
The Villarreal manager, Marcelino García Toral, praised his team enormously for their job well done against Napoli, beating the Italian side 1-0 in a spectacular encounter: “It was always going to be a great match. At home we’re a difficult team to beat and our rival today are also a team of the highest level. We knew it was going to be difficult but after a great effort we got a fair and important win that gives us a small advantage for the next leg”.
Marcelino believes the Yellows solid defence was key to the victory: “We’ve show again that we’re playing well and how difficult it is to beat us. I would have liked us to create more chances, but we have to recognize the value in creating what we did tonight because we faced a great team. Collectively, Napoli is the best team in Italy. But tonight they didn’t create many chances. Taking into account their quality upfront it’s a credit to the work of all the team when we didn’t have the ball that they didn’t cause us many problems. Our goalkeeper intervened successfully once or twice. In general we performed to an excellent level defensively”.
With regard to the possibility of success for the Yellows in this UEFA Europa League tie, Marcelino was optimistic, although he commented: “Now the tie is more or less 60% to 40% in our favour. We’ll go to a very difficult away ground, but the 1-0 gives us a cushion as it means they have to score two to get through to the next round and stop us from scoring. Both of which are difficult things for our rivals”.
The worst news for the Yellows was the muscular injury suffered by Jonathan dos Santos. Marcelino was regretful of this fact, but also said it’s the price sometimes paid European ties of this level: “Jonathan’s injury was the worst news of the night. He was playing really well and was a great plus for us. We’ll try to get him back fit as soon as possible. These matches can wear the players out, but we have to remember that three years ago we were playing against Guadalajara. We’re going to do well. Now coming to the end of the season what we’re most worried about are injuries”.
Marcelino also wanted to highlight Denis Suárez’s great goal that gave the team the definitive 1-0: “In training he and Soldado have been practicing from that side and Bruno from the other. I wasn’t surprised, but I was so happy to see it go in. The players on the pitch have the final say. Tonight Denis had his with a truly magnificent strike”.
To finish, the manager said he’s already thinking about Sunday’s match in the Vicente Calderón stadium against Atlético de Madrid (8:30pm CET): “Now we’re going to think about Atlético and then after Sunday we’ll think about the match in San Paolo. It’s going to be difficult, but somebody has got to win there, what we’re not going to do is throw the game”.
