‘Villarreal won’t play to draw’

Villarreal striker Jonathan Pereira said his team will not be playing for a draw against Almeria at home on Saturday.

The Yellow Submarine currently occupy second place in La Segunda, level on points with the Andalusians in third but ahead courtesy of having a better goal difference, which means they only need to draw 0-0 or 1-1 to achieve promotion back to the top flight after a 1-1 stalemate at Almeria earlier in the season.

Almeria need to win the game or draw with two goals or more to go up. Pereira, aware of the pitfalls of sitting back and trying to claim a point, believes the Villarreal fans can help the players.

“We have home advantage in our favour and will have a full house behind us at El Madrigal, so the fans will help us as they have done before, but we can’t just sit back and hope for a draw.

“Anyway, the supporters have already shown us what they are capable of and they tell me there has been a real clamour for tickets and it is now a sell-out,” said the 26-year-old former Real Betis man.

“The fans seem to be even more vociferous than they were in the Champions League so we hope to bring them great joy.

“Before playing Cordoba at the beginning of March we were 11 points off [automatic promotion] and if you had offered us this game then we would have taken it, but we are going into it in a good vein of form.

“However, we must make sure we concentrate and remain calm because we still need to take that final step,” he concluded.

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La Liga - Club News