Villarreal manager, Marcelino García Toral, said that achieving their objective is a tremendous achievement for a team like the Submarine, after today’s 0-2 win against Valencia to secure their place in the Champions League for next season. “It’s a real success. Budget-wise, we’re the seventh team in the league. This season is one to remember. This squad doesn’t have any amazing individuals, but we’re 90 minutes away from our first European Final in history and we’ve qualified for the Champions League after finishing fourth. It’s an extraordinary achievement”.
The manager added that the whole squad has made this happen, after less regular players got the win and played great today. “I’m always proud of this team. We’ve qualified for the Champions League with players that don’t usually play as much, this makes me even prouder if that’s possible”.
With regard to the game, the Yellows manager explained that the Submarine knew how to get the job done: “We started really well and the early goal gave us confidence. At the same time our opponents made it difficult for us. We were really precise in our play and linked up extremely well. We created danger and we could have scored a third. They had few chances and our players had a good game all round.”
To finish, Marcelino indicated that as the team have secured the Champions League spot earlier than expected they now have more options. “Tomorrow we will of course we will be thinking about Thursday, preparing ourselves to suffer there and hoping that that suffering will take us to the Final. If we are lucky enough to get through we will be able to focus all our attention on the Final and that’s a real positive”.
