The head coach believes the Yellow Submarine were far from their best against Pafos
Villarreal head coach Marcelino García Toral admitted after the Champions League defeat to Pafos that the result came down to the team failing to live up to expectations. “We played a very poor game. It didn’t look like we were playing in the Champions League and the opposition made the most of their chances. We were miles off our top level. I thought lapses like this could happen, but not in the Champions League. We were not up to the task. We must apologise to the club, the fans and everyone. We cannot deliver performances like the one we offered today.”
The coach added that the Yellows were unable to stick to their original game plan: “We hardly did anything we had planned. The starting point was to show intensity and ambition… and we were flat, predictable and slow. When that happens and you don’t score, you’re vulnerable. I had a lot of respect for this game, and when I saw us fail to score from two clear chances, I knew things would get complicated. If we’d been intense and ambitious, we wouldn’t have missed those two chances. Playing against Tottenham, City or Juve, we wouldn’t have missed them. Credit to Pafos, because they played well and fully deserved their win.”
