Villarreal boss Marcelino says a win over Espanyol at El Madrigal on Thursday would be a great boost to their Europa League chances.
The Yellow Submarine currently lie sixth, five points ahead of chasing Malaga, yet Marcelino has warned about the dangers of complacency after the Andalusians’ 1-0 loss at Eibar on Tuesday.
“We would be committing a great mistake if we started to relax because of Malaga’s defeat and victory over Espanyol would be a great lift,” he told reporters.
“Our ambition is to win every game and not think about our opponents’ results. We want to get back to winning as we haven’t done that for five games between La Liga and the Europa League, so we must go out with all our strength from the very first minute.”
Marcelino says he is looking forward to welcoming back players from injury for the run-in to the end of the season.
“We’ve had a lot of games this term and that weakens you both physically and mentally, added to which we’ve suffered injuries to some important players, such as Bruno.
“However, we should get progressively better over the last few games because we’ll having people coming back.
“There will also be less matches and that will allow the team to get in good physical shape for the remainder of the competition,” he explained.
