Marcelino has admitted that Villarreal face an uphill battle to reach the Europa League quarter-finals following Thursday’s 3-1 defeat by Sevilla in the last 16.
The Yellow Submarine kicked off their all-Spanish tie at home but conceded three away goals to leave their hopes of progression hanging by a thread, and the Coach – although adamant the Andalucians were in no way superior to his side – lamented the result.
“The tie is very difficult [for us now]. We could only score one goal, but we’ll still compete [in the second leg],” he said after the game.
“We’ll try to improve in the aspects of the game, in which we weren’t successful, and reinforce ourselves.
“The result is what matters, that doesn’t change, but I didn’t see a superior Sevilla [on the pitch].
“There were specific situations, which proved very decisive. We could’ve avoided some of their goals, but we must look at ourselves.
“We must look at our vulnerabilities in the air as their three goals all came the same way, but the only thing [Sevilla] were superior in was the result.
“We can come out of the match with a few good things – pride, effort, attacking intent, persistence, but we didn’t have any luck with our reactions.
“We have to be extremely grateful to our players because they left everything [on the pitch] and we can’t have anything against them.”
