Bitter, Marcelino, the Villareal coach, had difficulty digesting the elimination of his team, after the latter, beaten 4-0 in Marseille, led 3-0 five minutes from time at home on Thursday evening, to finally failing to return to the height of OM.
“The result does not seem fair to me over the two matches,” said Marcelino, briefly OM coach at the start of the season.
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“We had a very bad day in Marseille,” added the Spanish technician, made even more bitter that he was unable to take his revenge on the Marseille club which left through the back door.
They had four chances that night, and we had 18 today.
So it's a shame.
We thought we had our chances and it's a shame because over the two matches, I repeat, we deserved qualification more than our rival.
»
Marcelino developed his theory, which is rather vague when considering the facts.
“In football, there is sometimes a bit of luck but if we had qualified, it would not have been a miracle,” he insisted.
(...) They had much better luck in the first leg than us this evening.
(...) We showed this evening that with work, we were very superior to OM.
I think we clearly deserved more than four goals tonight (...).
Leading only 1-0 at the break was already unfair.
For their part, I only remember one opportunity on a counterattack before their goal.
We had all kinds of chances and their best player was the goalkeeper.
»
For his part, Jean-Louis Gasset, the Marseille coach, had a more pragmatic reading of the events: “Today (Thursday), Villarreal was superior to Marseille.
But a week ago we played the perfect match, scoring four goals.
I went through all the states and at 3-0, like many people, I thought the worst.
(...) We scared ourselves but in the end we are here.
We were not at the level of Villarreal but I told them (the players) that it was Marseille who were in the quarter-final of the Europa League.