Christos Christoforou, boss of Apollon Limassol, claims Thursday’s Europa League opponents Villarreal are favourites to win the group.
The Cypriots were drawn alongside the Yellow Submarine, Borussia Monchengladbach and FC Zurich in Group A, while, ahead of the clash at El Madrigal, Christoforou labelled Marcelino’s team as the best of the four.
“We are eager and looking forward to this game. Villarreal are one of the best teams in Spain and favourites to win the group, so we are expecting a difficult night,” he told a Press conference.
The Apollon Coach admitted he had studied Villarreal and analysed them in their opening group game, a 1-1 draw at Borussia Monchengladbach.
“They are a very strong and competitive team, so my players have worked hard to be able to compete in this game.
“We’ve worked on what we perceive as their weaknesses and will try to surprise them in attack. We are confident we’ll be able to do that as we have good forwards,” continued Christoforou.
“However, our main aim is to qualify for the next phase and if we take something positive from El Madrigal we’ll have a better chance of doing that.
“I’ve been satisfied with how our season is going and we have all our players available, so we have the artillery to face this game under these conditions.
“All our men in form will be playing because we expect a tough battle,” he concluded.