Marcelino regrets his team’s start and praises Sorloth’s individual second-half performance
Villarreal CF head coach, Marcelino García Toral, appeared before the media to analyse the draw against Real Madrid (4-4) at the Estadio de la Cerámica after equalising a three-goal deficit against the champions and coming up just short of a win against the champions and a chance of reaching the final game of the season with European options.
Here is what he had to say::
Disappointment in the first half and improvement in the second.
“I don’t believe in utopias, and if Real Madrid score four goals it’s almost impossible to win. They put four past us in the first half where we showed very little intensity and when you do that against this team that can happen to you. But I’m quite disappointed with the first half. And in the second half we were back to what we have been with a stratospheric Alexander Sorloth and with the team working to win the ball back all together we managed to equalise.”
More intensity in the first half
“The only ones who had something at stake today were us, Real Madrid are already champions and they have a Champions League final ahead of them. I consider myself to blame for this first half.”
Great improvement since January
“The team has been a very good team since January, because that’s what the game and the results say. Today we offered that level in the second half, but I don’t understand that we did that first half playing our last game at home and after all the work to get here. Something had to go wrong, for us to do this first half on our full pitch, against Real Madrid. It seems like fate has put it this way, so it’s hard for me to take this game in.”
Too many goals conceded
“It’s the record number of goals conceded in the history of Villarreal in the top flight. If we concede 64 goals it’s very difficult to get into Europe. If we want to get in next year we have to concede 20 fewer goals.”
