Europa League: “You never know…” Marcelino wants to believe in the comeback

"We never know...". Beaten 4-0 by Marseille in the first leg, Villarreal and its coach Marcelino want above all to win Thursday in the return match, while nourishing the slim hope of a “comeback”.

“The remontada is something a bit epic. You must not confuse everything and you must use your head. The heart too, but a little less. We have to play our game and from there we think we can compete,” Marcelino said.

“It is obvious that to win, we will have to be at our best. We were far from it on Thursday and our rival clearly outperformed us,” he added.

“But we think we have the ability to win this match. They had a complete success in the first leg, with three goals in their first four situations. If the same thing happens to us, you never know,” he said.

The Spanish technician, who briefly coached OM at the start of the season, also assured that his players wanted to show that the 4-0 first leg did not reflect the difference in value between the two teams.

“It will be very difficult to qualify. But we must show pride and ambition and have hope, out of respect for ourselves, the competition and our supporters,” he said.

“We are going to play a match against a great team who outclassed us in the first leg. We want to win and show that there is no such difference between the two teams. We will do everything to win and for the rest, we will see as the minutes go by,” he concluded.

Villarreal's Ivorian defender Eric Bailly, who played for OM last season, remained on the same line as his coach. “We know it will be hard to come back. Everyone thinks we're out, but you never know. We want to give a good image, we didn’t do it on the way out,” he said.