Marcelino: Manchester City deserved the victory today, Huang Qian lacks the ability to react more quickly

This morning, in the third round of the Champions League this season, Villarreal lost 0-2 at home to Manchester City. Villarreal coach Marcelino was interviewed after the game.

About this game

First of all, I would like to congratulate the Manchester City team on their victory and also congratulate their coach. There was a time in the game when we seemed to have doubts about everything. We didn't react quickly enough and made some mistakes. The opponent's second goal came from our own mistakes. That goal dealt us a heavy blow. However, Villarreal adjusted very well in the second half. I am very proud of the team's performance in the second half because we showed vitality and created several obvious opportunities, which made the game a little more suspense. This is the direction we should stick to.

Is the morale of Villarreal players low now?

Every time you lose, you are disappointed, but this time we lost to Manchester City. Villarreal have faced them four times before, all of which ended in defeat. We always expect to win, but we know it will be difficult to beat them. We can look at the situation from different angles, but as an optimist, I would rather see the dynamic team in the second half. We have to recognize the effort we put in, although we didn’t perform well in the first half, but you know, the opponent is a strong team. We will reflect and find out where our problems lie. This is a process of continuous competition and continuous improvement.

Regarding Villarreal’s current shortcomings

In the game with Tottenham, we should not have lost. And today, Manchester City is a well-deserved winner. At the beginning of the game, several opportunities from the opponent made us very uneasy. What we lacked was the ability to react more quickly.

About Thomas

He is a very important player and we are happy to have him with us. It's a pity that Thomas didn't score today, he feels very happy here and we are happy to have him.

About Manchester City

They played very well and had a clear tactical plan, which is worthy of praise. When your opponent passes the ball from the wing, you can't lose your position because of it. You must know how to defend. In football, many tactics are trained and sometimes work successfully, sometimes not. I felt like in the first half we were like a boxer waiting to be beaten. The opponent's two goals gave us room for improvement on the defensive level.

Manchester City controlled the rhythm of the game. Our state was indeed not very good today, while our opponents were fast and accurate in passing the ball. There is a player in their formation (Note: Marcelino should be talking about Haaland) who can interfere with our decision-making in the shooting area. In the second half we dropped deeper and the opponent's chances decreased accordingly.

About Villarreal’s performance since the beginning of this season

Our current performance in the league is pretty good (although we lost away games against Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid). In the Champions League, we started to face three very strong teams. What can we do? Win every game? That would be great, of course, but first we have to compete at our best and we only have to look at today's results to understand the value of the Champions League - it is the most prestigious competition in the world and brings together the best teams in the world.

We have already faced two Premier League teams in the Champions League this season, as well as the team with the most honors in Italy (Note: Juventus). When we face Paphos next time, I think we are indeed the more favored team. Now we need to review this match against Manchester City and then turn our attention to our next league opponent, Valencia. We will go home disappointed today, but if we can experience more high-level games like this, we will definitely become stronger.

Mini-game recommendations:Jumpy Robot