The Villarreal manager was frustrated that the win slipped from his side’s grasp against UD Almería
Villarreal head coach Javi Calleja recognised that his side was not good defensively in the first leg of their round-of-32 tie against Almería in the Copa del Rey (3-3). Despite that, he underlined that in attack, the team did a lot of things well. “With the ball we were very good, and without it, we were bad. We made a number of errors throughout the match. We gave away an unnecessary penalty, the second goal, we almost gave them the assist ourselves. Because of that, we’re leaving with a day. The team gave away too many gifts. The defensive intensity wasn’t that of an elite team. When we’re 1-3 up away from home, we have to make the most of it. It was us who let Almería into the game,” he commented.
For Calleja, Villarreal should have done better with a 1-3 advantage: “We did a lot of things well with the ball, but we were lacked strength and presence when it was time to control the match. We lost a lot of balls and we made a lot of unnecessary fouls. The result is fair because when you score three goals away from home and you don’t win, it’s because you’ve done something wrong. The tie is completely open. We have to win at home. We need to learn from this. We can’t gift the opponent ten minutes, we need to concentrate for the whole match.”
To conclude, Calleja looked ahead to the Yellow Submarine’s next game, against Levante at the Estadio de la Cerámica (Sunday, 4:15pm): “The match against Levante will be key. The team needs to show its level from the start to the end. The only way to win is to be consistent.”
