Escriba admits tie is over

Villarreal boss Fran Escriba doesn’t believe his side’s 4-0 hammering by AS Roma did not reflect his side’s performance but admits the tie is all but over.

A first-half Emerson strike opened the scoring for the Serie A giants before Edin Dzeko netted a second-half treble – the first hat-trick by a visiting player at Villarreal since Patrick Kluivert for Barcelona in 2001.

“I honestly think the game changed after the second goal. In the first 15 minutes of the second half we played well, but that second goal knocked the wind out of our sails,” said Escriba in a Press conference.

“The first goal was right-footed by a left-footed player… The result does not do justice to the game as a whole. Going 2-0 down really hurt us and we did not react.

“In that half-hour after that, it’s not just that we played badly, but we couldn’t figure out what was happening. We’re almost out of the Europa League, so we’ve got to focus on La Liga.

“Just as we calm the players when we win convincingly, we must keep a balance in the locker room after a defeat. We must get back to reality, but we know these things can happen.”

Tags Fran Escriba Roma
La Liga - Club News