The pride of being among the best
The pride of being among the best
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Unai Emery underlined his pleasure at reaching the UEFA Champions League Round of 16

Villarreal head coach Unai Emery appeared in front of the media after the important win in Bergamo against Atalanta (2-3). Here are the key points of what the Basque manager had to say:

Into the Round of 16!

“It’s the third time that Villarreal have reached the Champions League last 16 and I think it’s something to be proud of on a professional level because of what we represent. Seeing both Fernando Roigs, father and sun, and Llaneza too, all of them so happy, shows the satisfaction after the wait. We’re a consistent team in Europe and we’re going head-to-head with the best. For us, it was a challenge to see how far we could go. We’re finding consistency and credibility which we need to show in LaLiga too.”

The game plan

“We needed to be an organised team and win duels to find spaces where we could run and win the game. We had to know how to dig in, and always be on our feet after blows we could suffer. Today we were able to stay focused after their two goals. They did nearly get the third, because that’s how they play, and we had spoken about that before.”

Possible oppnoents

“Now, any opponent is difficult. We need to enjoy ourselves, but compete at the same time. The nice thing is being there, among the best, with the future Champions League winner. We competed well against Manchester United and Atalanta, and to have knocked them out has a lot of merit.”

Gerard

“The presence of certain players gives us security. Different players give us different things. Gerard can receive the ball deep, while Danjuma can receive it long. It’s true that when Gerard wasn’t fit, we lacked a few things. Today he played well, and in fact, the whole team was great collectively.”

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