Villarreal want to return from the Nuevo Los Cármenes with all three points to continue climbing up the LaLiga table
Villarreal coach Unai Emery appeared at the press conference ahead of the LaLiga match against Granada CF at the Nuevo Los Cármenes Saturday, 14pm (CET). The coach from Hondarribia emphasised the importance of focusing on the vital clash against the Nazarí side and leaving the excitement of the Champions League to one side. The Submarine need to win in Granada.
“We are very focused on what LaLiga means for us and a certain loss of points due to a lack of consistency. It’s true that we’ve been moving up the table, but we still have the most difficult thing to do, to get closer to the teams that are in clear European places. Given this difficulty, we must find a very strong mentality to take it one game at a time because the opportunities are going to get more limited. Now we’re almost in a good position and that ‘almost’ in tomorrow’s game is going to make a big difference,” Emery underlined about the game and the LaLiga run so far.
The Basque coach pointed out that the team can’t afford another setback: “We’ve had a process in which we’ve been missing players and we’ve had fewer resources to be competitive, but there was also a phase of the season in which we could have been competitive and we weren’t. Now we’re insisting on minimising our mistakes a lot. Now we insist on minimising our mistakes through concentration and respecting our opponents as much as possible. If we lose our humility, they can beat us. There is no more time for trial and error. We have to act and we have to perform now. Everyone has to give their maximum. The club has always had a good spirit. Now Lo Celso has come in and in the summer, planning for the season was very good.”
Unai Emery praised the work of tomorrow’s opponents: “They’re a team that I like. They beat Atlético Madrid and came close to beating Barcelona. They’ve made some additions that are already working, but the block they had before was already good. They have a good organisational structure as a club and a coach who puts his own stamp on it. We have a lot of respect for them. It’s going to be a tough game because both teams have their own goals.”
Granada and Villarreal meet at the Nuevo Los Cármenes with the Submarine’s European chances intact and in the process of climbing up the table in the domestic competition. A hard-fought clash is expected between two teams in need of all three points.
