Ahead of their Spanish Cup tie against Barcelona tonight, Villarreal manager Marcelino Garcia Toral has said that his team will look to play their natural game and has vowed not to repeat the same mistakes as Manchester City made against the Catalans in the Champions League.
Villarreal head into the second leg of their Spanish Cup semi-final tie against Barcelona due to be played at the Madrigal tonight behind. Toral’s side lost 3-1 at the Camp Nou in the first leg, which makes their task of prolonging their stay in the cup all the more difficult.
The Yellow Submarine would be buoyed by their weekend fixture against Real Madrid as they held the current La Liga leaders to a 1-1 draw, even though Toral rested a number of his first team regulars to keep them fresh for tonight’s encounter.
Unfazed by the strength of their illustrious opponents, the manager has vowed to play their natural game against the Catalans.
“We’re not going to vary our habitual game too much”, Toral was quoted by AS as saying at a pre-match press conference.
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“We believe that we can win through our own understanding of the game and by exercising that gameplan on a collective level.”
However, he added that Villarreal will not make the same mistakes as Manchester City did in their Champions League defeat to Barcelona last month where an overtly attacking set-up cost Manuel Pellegrini's side a 2-1 defeat.
He also warned against taking Atletico Madrid’s open approach against Luis Enrique’s side in the previous round of the same competition which cost the reigning Spanish champions dearly.
“We won’t going like the clappers from kick-off – we have seen recent experiences of that such as the way Manchester City approached their meeting with Barca or return leg against Atletico, who had a similar result to us but conceded three goals in 25 minutes.
“We will try to play an orderly game, remain solid and well-positioned in defence and after that, try to be daring and effective up front.”
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