Bruno “really happy” to be player with most official matches after taking over Senna
Bruno is already a living legend at Villarreal CF. The centre midfielder and captain of the Submarine became, upon playing against Eibar (1-2), the player to play the most official matches in the history of the club. With 364 matches under his belt, the little boy from Artana –a small town close to Vila-real- takes over another club legend in Marcos Senna, who played 363 matches in the Yellow shirt.
For Bruno it was, of course, a very special match and not only because of the valuable victory picked up at the Ipurua stadium. Having grown up at the Villarreal CF Training Ground (Ciudad Deportiva de Miralcamp), playing for his favourite team, the captain was happy to break the record that was held by one of his idols: “For me it is an honour, and even more so taking over Senna, who has been a teammate, great friend and role model for me. I hope to enjoy many more matches, I’m happy and I want to keep going. I’ll look after myself to make my career last as long as possible and keep playing matches because I’m still young. The most important thing now is to achieve all the exciting goals that we have this season”.
Since his debut with the First Team, beating Mallorca on 1st October 2006 (1-2) almost a decade ago, the Yellows captain has played 278 league matches, 28 in the Copa del Rey, 14 in the Champions League, 43 in the UEFA Europa League and 1 in the Intertoto Cup. On the other hand, Senna, currently a member of the Villarreal CF Institutional Relations Department, played a total of 363 matches, split into 292 in the league, 16 in the Copa del Rey, 27 in the Champions League, 13 in the Europa League, 11 in the UEFA Cup and 4 in the Intertoto Cup.
In addition to the record, Bruno was also happy about the hard fought victory against Eibar; a tough opponent who the Yellows knew how to break down. “I think the team have been really focused, it was an important match for us and we knew what to do to get the win. We found it hard in the first half but in the second we were able to get another goal. The team, despite going down a goal, gave everything to make the comeback and that’s not easy, we’re seeing the results performances like that are giving us and it’s so important to keep picking up points”.
