Marcelino has praised his team’s remarkable performance against Atlético de Madrid and was disappointed with the outcome of the match
Villarreal CF head coach Marcelino García Toral has appeared before the media to analyse the defeat against Atlético de Madrid (1-2), in which the Submarine deserved more.
In his first comments, he assessed the game: “We didn’t start the match in the way we would have liked to. We had difficulties in the first 25 minutes, they created chances and then scored from set pieces. That created doubts and after half an hour we saw the Villarreal we are used to. We put in a very good second half in which we could have won, we had a chance to make it 2-1 and then they scored to make it 1-2.”
The Asturian head coach also praised the mentality and attitude of his players: “You always have to have the mentality to win. Our season has been tough, but today it’s a blow to lose at home. It makes me very uncomfortable, and even more so in the final stretch. Maybe we also went for the game and that helps us to be positive. It was a very good opportunity to get closer to the European places, but it wasn’t to be, but we have to keep on winning to fight for those places.”
On the other hand, Marcelino lamented the Submarine’s lack of accuracy in the match: “We struggled in the first 25 minutes and there are situations that are what they are, you have to deal with them. The team tried, and tried to win, we went looking for the rival and we had the clearest chance in the second half, but this is football, and more so against a rival like Atlético de Madrid.”
Finally, he emphasised that the team will continue to fight even though it will be difficult to get into Europe: “It is very difficult to get into Europe but we will continue to work to win games. Opponents like Real Sociedad are very solid and especially now that they don’t have European competition, Betis have a very good squad and Valencia are more consistent than us, but we will keep fighting and we won’t give up to give our fans that satisfaction.”
