Marcelino: "1-3 leaves us in a favourable position, but the tie isn't over"

Two late goals helped Valencia CF to move into a strong position in their UEFA Europa League quarter final against Villarreal CF, and following the game coach Marcelino García Toral gave his thoughts on where the 1-3 result leaves his side.

The result

“We had great effectiveness and we’ve put the tie in our favour, but it isn’t decided yet. Villarreal had chances to have made it 2-1, but Neto made some notable saves to avoid that happening. We were more effective than the opposition today. I’ll only see myself in the semi-finals when this tie is over, but we’d all have taken this result if it were offered to us beforehand. A 1-3 result leaves us in a very favourable position, but the tie isn’t decided yet.”

A good start and a good finish

“We started the game well, with the penalty and two good chances to go 0-2 up. A very dubious penalty got Villarreal back into the game, and gave them opportunities to have gone ahead. However, they weren’t effective, and Neto made some great saves. In the final 15 or 20 minutes we dominated the game. Villarreal were playing high up the pitch in search of the second goal, but we were able to generate two dangerous chances and score two goals -one of which was a great strike from Wass. We leave here with perhaps a deceptively large win, but it leaves us in a good position to get into the semi-finals.”

Finishing inside the box

“It isn’t that Valencia played inconsistently, but rather that Villarreal are a good team in attack. Tonight’s game was the first that they have lost in the Europa League. Here they showed their true potential. They have their virtues, with good attacking players who generated danger for us. I think that the three players who came on as substitutes gave us a lot, and this combined with us growing as a team at the end of the game. We were assured in the area and inconsistent in our overall play. We need to take a step forward, as there were phases in which we lost the ball too easily.”