Marcelino Garcia Toral admitted to feeling nervous waiting for Villarreal to put Levante to the sword today, as he reflects on the team’s push for fourth.
The Yellow Submarine dispatched Los Granotes 3-0 in the Sunday lunchtime kick-off, benefiting from Keylor Navas’ early red card for the hosts and concession of a penalty converted by Bruno.
However, until Ikechukwu Uche’s late double sealed the points, the visitors’ Coach admitted he was growing anxious at the Ciutat de Valencia.
“There is one game up until the red card and another from there onwards,” reflected Marcelino post match.
“When this happens to a team, they have a penalty against them and a player less for so long, it becomes very difficult.
“We were consistent, created the chances and eventually managed to score the second goal.
“When at 1-0, Levante were dangerous because in any move against us they could have done some damage.
“I got pretty nervous when seeing that we were not taking our chances. If they were to have drawn level, they would have gained confidence as they were playing at home and it would have very much been against us. Fortunately we scored the second.”
Villarreal’s win pushes them up to 27 points and cements their place in fourth in La Liga for another week.
“What now? Well, now to rest. Hopefully on Friday night [against Malaga] we can make it 30 points. We have to go game by game.
“We are a good team, we are demonstrating this. But when we drop the intensity, the games can escape us.
“There is great equality in La Liga, beyond the top three who are playing in their own League. We need to be humble and not lose the values that have brought us here.
“Can we be the top team in the Valencian Community? Step by step. We are fourth and are very happy and hopefully we can stay there.
“But to the end of the season to be there we would have had to have done things well for nine months. We are currently three months in, there is more than half of the competition left to go.
“I do not know of teams that earn Champions League qualification in November. Well, yes, two. But that’s another thing…”