Villarreal manager Marcelino: ‘We deserved to qualify more than Marseille.’ | OneFootball

Villarreal almost pulled off a stunning comeback on Thursday night. Heading into the second leg of their UEFA Europa League tie against Olympique de Marseille, they faced the mammoth task of overturning a four-goal deficit.

Pre-match, Marseille manager Jean-Louis Gasset said that Villarreal had to play a “perfect” match and had “no margin for error”, whilst his side would have to have a “catastrophic” match in order to cede their 4-0 advantage. That statement was likely meant as a warning, but it was almost a blueprint for his side, who were out-run and out-fought for almost the entire 90 minutes at the Estadi de la Ceràmica.

Villarreal had 25 shots to Marseille’s seven. Les Phocéens were grateful for the La Liga side’s profligacy, as well as a string of crucial saves from Pau Lopez. Yerson Mosquera scored Villarreal’s third on the night in the 85th minute to set up a tense finish, however, with Marcelino’s side pushing for an equaliser, Jonathan Clauss killed the match in the dying seconds, seeing OM progress 5-3 on aggregate. Marcelino, who began the season as Marseille manager, believes that the final scoreline was “unfair”.

“We saw a great show, a really great show, with what was from my point of view, on the balance of the two matches, unfair. We had a very bad day in Marseille, but I don’t know if they even had four chances to score in the first leg and we had 18 tonight. The work was extraordinary and we are sad. We had the chances. We thought we could qualify and the players today showed that was possible. It’s a shame because we deserved to qualify more than Marseille,” said the Spaniard in his post-match press conference.

The winners of the 2020/21 Europa League campaign are, however, out and Marseille continue at their expense. Les Phocéens will discover their quarter-final opponent on Friday.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle