Marcelino: Villarreal not favourites

Marcelino has admitted that he does not consider Villarreal to be favourites in their Europa League last-32 tie against Red Bull Salzburg.

The first leg will be played at El Madrigal, and the Coach is expecting an open encounter between ”two good teams with similarities in their attacking approaches”, although he feels the Austrians’ Champions League experience puts them at an advantage.

“Two good teams with similarities in their attacking approaches will face each other,” he said to reporters at a Press conference.

“I don’t think we’re favourites because Salzburg played in the Champions League last year and we’d just come up from Segunda. We want to do our best in order to progress.

“Our rivals have very good attacking potential, so we must do a great job defensively, although we’ll be playing with our usual positivity in attack.

"I believe one hundred percent that we’ll be able to give our best and overcome this tie. Going from being an extraordinary team to a depressed one after two lost games hasn’t entered my psyche.

"We lost against both Barcelona and Rayo [Vallecano], it can happen. At Vallecas, we didn’t have a good day, but I didn’t think we were any worse mentally than before the game against Barcelona.

“In football, you can’t always play as you want because there’s a rival and there are both successes and mistakes [to account for].

"We need to play with intensity and concentration. Any slight mistake can cost you the game, as happened at Vallecas. Surely this time it won’t happen again.

“[Keeping a clean sheet] will give us more than a 50 percent chance of progression.

“It’s a very difficult tie, but one which motivates us. In this competition there are many great teams. Salzburg are strong opponents, just like ourselves

“We will approach this match only focusing on our game because we’re convinced we can overcome this tie.”

Tags Marcelino Garcia Toral Red Bull Salzburg
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