The Villarreal manager praises his players’ performance after knocking out Napoli
The Villarreal CF manager, Marcelino García Toral, showed his satisfaction after his team’s draw against SSC Napoli (1-1) that puts the Submarine through to the Round of 16 of the UEFA Europa League. “We’re very happy because we were up against a great team. To knockout Napoli really shows something special. All the team contributed to this victory. Our progress is no mean achievement. We are only lucky to have footballers that love wearing the Villarreal badge”, he commented.
According to Marcelino, Pina’s goal was well deserved: “The team is on a great undefeated run and it’s difficult to beat us. We knew that we had to score to go through to the next round. At the start we had chances but we didn’t score and Hamsik punished us with a great goal. At the end we scored a wonder goal, albeit a bit lucky, that served us to move on in the tournament. The team is solid and the big rivals we faced didn’t create great chances on goal”.
This result makes the morale of the Submarine even stronger: “Our morale is in the clouds right now. We had success and that little bit of luck needed to eliminate a team like Napoli. Now we have to recover because we have a match on Sunday at 12pm. It’s not easy to explain. We have to protect the team that played in Europe”.
In terms of possible opponents in the Round of 16, Marcelino highlighted that he would prefer not to come up against a fellow Spanish side: “To avoid the Spanish teams would be good. Last season we got Sevilla and they knocked us out. We would like a non-Spanish rival. However, there are very difficult teams in the tournament. We’ll see if we’re lucky in the draw”.
To finish, the manager wanted to dedicate the win to the Submarine’s physical trainier whose father recently passed away: “We want to dedicate this win to Ismael Fernández and his family who are going through a difficult time at the moment. This one’s for them”.
