The Villarreal CF captain analyses the Yellows’ current situation ahead of facing Real Madrid (Sunday, 9pm)
Villarreal’s skipper and right back, Mario Gaspar Pérez, spoke to the press today and affirmed that the best way to take on Real Madrid in the Yellows’ next league clash (Sunday, 9pm) is with confidence. According to Mario, refereeing should not affect the development of an exciting match. “You get whatever referee you get every game, although it is a coincidence that it is the same referee that was involved in the VAR the other day against Levante. Referees can make mistakes. I don’t think it is deliberate. We hope that the refereeing is good against Madrid.”
For the Yellows captain, it is really important that refereeing decisions don’t affect the team’s morale as they did against Levante UD: “We have to have confidence in the referees. If we start protesting in the first controversial play that will be very detrimental to us. We have to let him do his job. Then we can assess the decisions after the game. We have to look at ourselves and demand more from ourselves. We can’t lose our heads because of refereeing decisions. We have to keep our cool and not let them affect us so much. Against Levante, the game escaped us after 15 minutes because of this. We have to control our nerves and improve so we don’t make as many mistakes. A game can fall out of your control within five minutes. This cannot happen again. The exerience we have gained from these first two matches must serve as a lesson to us.”
In terms of facing Madrid, the defender stressed how much the team wants to use the match to make up for the first two disappointing results: “We can’t wait to play and take the three points. We controlled both games we’ve played so far and they both got away from us. We have to improve in certain things to be able to beat Madrid. Sometimes these are the best matches to clinch the three points and lift the team’s morale. We have to be fully concentrated for 90 minutes and do things well.”
Real Madrid come to the Estadio de la Cerámica with four points from their first two games. “It’s true that in their last match they looked the Madrid from last year, but when they played Celta they put in a good perfroamcne with a man down. They have some of the best players in the world and if we let them in the game they are going to create a lot of problems. We have to dominate so they feel uncomfortable.”
