The UEFA Europa League Last 16 kicks off this Thursday at Mestalla, and Valencia CF coach Marcelino assessed the danger presented by opponents FC Krasnodar in his pre-match press conference.
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FC Krasnodar’s strengths
“The link up well between their attacking players and are a very good side on the counter. We will have to be very alert. They have high level individual players, as well as speed. We have to defend well. If Krasnodar weren’t a good team, then they wouldn’t have knocked out Bayer Leverkusen.”
A good result for the first leg
“It’s good not to concede, but you never know, because in the second leg you can be beaten heavily. We had a good result against Celtic, but we struggled in the opening minutes. Likewise, Real Madrid got a great result against Ajax in the first leg, but then we saw what happened yesterday. This tie is two 90 minute games, four 45 minute halves, and even if you’re the better side in three of those four, you can be inferior in one and be eliminated. If we were to win well tommorow we would be very close to going through, but Krasnodar are strong and we will have to defend very well to prevent them from scoring.”
The most important moment of the season?
“We’ve always tried to manage the squad with nine months in mind. We consider every game to be the most important, because to have big games at the end you need to have been competitive beforehand. We want to continue in the UEFA Europa League, and then we’ll shift our focus to LaLiga. The team have proven to be competitive in knockout competitions, and we’re going to try to knock out Krasnodar, which won’t be easy. We’ll see if, with the support of the fans, we are able to get a good result for the return leg and keep a clean sheet.”
Reasons for knockout competition success
“We’ve been a very reliable team for as long as I’ve been here. We had some difficult moments because we weren’t scoring goals, but it wasn’t because we were a bad side. Now we’re on a good run defensively, and it’s normal that if the opposition have few chances then they score few goals. We have pace and dynamism up front, we create good movement and chances, and we’re a tough side to beat.”
