“Madrid is Madrid and we already knew that they always put enormous demands on you”
MADRID, 20 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Villarreal’s coach, Quique Setién, acknowledged that Real Madrid, their executioner this Thursday in the Copa del Rey round of 16, “never have to give up”, at the same time that he highlighted how “fair” they came to the match , marked by the loss of some of its most important players.
“We have surpassed them so much in the first half that then in the second part things have changed. Madrid is Madrid and we already knew that they always put enormous demands on you when you lower the intensity a bit. We couldn’t maintain that demand of the first half and then he has condemned us some balls that we have lost. Madrid has great footballers. It is not easy to defend them for 90 minutes. You never have to give up on Real Madrid”, acknowledged the coach at a press conference.
The Spaniard highlighted the superiority of the whites in the second half, although he insisted on the fatigue of his players. “Madrid’s improvement in the second half comes because very fresh players have come out and we were a bit tired. This has been noticed. Misalignments occur and they have taken advantage of them. When you don’t manage to coordinate that pressure well, you suffer and that has happened to us “, he expressed.
“Nobody likes to lose. I think we could have gone through, but sometimes football is uncertain and even more so when there are teams that are capable of generating dangerous situations and scoring goals. I think we were a bit tight in some positions and that has helped us It affected having to make these substitutions. Madrid made the most of that point. I don’t want to apologize but we have six players injured, all of them very important. Even with everything we played a great game, but we couldn’t”, he added.
The Villarreal coach, who stressed the importance of the injuries he suffered in his defence, once again acknowledged the “great level” of his rival. “It is true that Albiol and Foyth are two footballers with great experience and that they read the games very well, but Raúl (Cuenca) and Aisa (Mandi) have done very well when they had to go out. We all know that today we have seen players Madrid at a high level. It’s not easy to defend them with one or the other, although experience helps a lot,” he said.
Finally, the coach did not want to talk about the referee, although he questioned some of his decisions. “Analyzing all the actions is not easy from the bench. I have seen some of them up close and I think they have been penalized when they should not. They are decisions that I understand that the referee could be wrong. The same as with the penalty that seemed clear to me. It doesn’t matter what we think and there is no one to change it,” he concluded.