14 March 2019

Marcelino: "Overall, we were deserving of our place in the quarter finals"

The coach reflects on Valencia CF's Europa League progress at the expense of FC Krasnodar

His side through to the next round of the UEFA Europa League, Marcelino García Toral felt that the overall result for Valencia CF against FC Krasnodar was a deserved one. Speaking in his post-match press conference, the coach said that: “They started strong in the first fifteen minutes, but from there I feel that the game was ours. We had the clearer chances, we dominated the game and I can't remember any opportunities on goal for them, whilst we had several clear ones. Overall, we were clearly deserving of our place in the quarter finals."

The late drama
"They scored in the 85th minute, then we were lucky enough to score our goal with a great team move. Football is about taking your chances, and we could have been knocked out, but I think that we did enough to win and to go through."

Guedes the goalscorer
"We are very satisfied with Guedes, who's had a very difficult season with injuries and a lack of fitness as a result. He's a player who is very useful for the team, and it's going to be very good for him to have scored the goal."

The quarter final draw
"We are very proud of the players, and we will see if we get a little bit of luck tomorrow in the draw. We know who we would like to avoid, but getting a lesser known opponent doesn't guarantee that we will go through. We'll go for it, whoever we get picked against. We've competed in the Champions League against two big clubs who are in the quarter finals of that competition. Now we are here and we want to keep going."

LaLiga the priority
"I keep saying that LaLiga is our priority and, after a 5-hour flight, in just 72 hours we have a very important game against Getafe. Today we wanted to go through to the next round in Europe. We'll see who we are drawn against, as there are some great teams in the pot, but it's wonderful that a big club like Valencia CF are into the quarter finals of the Europa League. We are, along with FC Barcelona, the only two sides who are still competing in three competitions this season. Things are very even and any differences in football are getting smaller all the time."

 

Copyright 2013-2024 Valencia CF. The use of the editorial content of the article is permitted as long as the source gets the credit and contains the following link: www.valenciacf.com. Photographs by Lázaro de la Peña, reuse is not permitted.