Marcelino: "We are going to try to repay the fans' support with success"

Having led his side into the semifinals of the UEFA Europa League, Valencia CF coach Marcelino García Toral hailed the Valencia CF players for their brilliant performance in his post-match press conference.

The result
“We are very happy to keep going in the Europa League, two games away from the final. We will give all we have to get there. We're very happy with the performance of the squad, and we are the Spanish team with the most official games played this season. We're in a very difficult semifinal against a great side, but we have the utmost excitement about reaching a final in our Centenary year."

The fans
"The turnout tonight means a lot. I thank the fans. I've been at Valencia CF for two years and I've never seen such heavy, continuous rain. Thank you to everyone for coming along on such an ugly day, when we had the tie in our favour. We are going to try to repay their support with success. The remaining games are 'finals', and we will see if -between us all- we can achieve our greatest goals. Thank you again to everyone."

Coquelin's suspension for the semifinal first leg
"I'm always self-critical, but we'd thought before this game that we wanted to give Dani Parejo a rest, and with Carlos Soler's injury we didn't have another option. Coquelin picked up a yellow card and it's a pity, but we have other players in the squad. We're very satisfied to be playing the next round against Arsenal. If we had known that he was going to be booked, I wouldn't have brought him on. It wasn't even a yellow card offence."

The schedule
"We have 9 points at stake in LaLiga in a very important week and we have to recover from this game, go to Seville on Sunday and get a good result. A victory would put us in a very good situation. We will put the Europa League to one side and focus on a week in which we have Champions League qualification via LaLiga at stake."