Valencia boss Marcelino said he was proud of his side after they booked their place in the Europa League semi-finals with a 2-0 win over LaLiga rivals Villarreal
Toni Lato netted his first senior goal for the club in the 13th minute before Dani Parejo doubled the lead at the start of the second half to secure a 5-1 aggregate victory.
Marcelino told a press conference reported by Uefa.com: “We are proud of what we’ve done and grateful to the players.
“We are in a semi-final, a final and doing well in the league. We’d like to be in two finals in this centenary season.”
On his semi-final opponents Arsenal, he added: “They have a coach we know very well here and some extraordinary players.
“But if there’s any more pressure on them to win this competition, we’ll play the semi-final with just the same desire to go through as they have.”
The game was played in torrential rain at the Mestella.
Marcelino added: “I thank the crowd for coming tonight. I’ve been in this city for a couple of years and never seen it rain like this but they came, roared their support and stayed on an ugly night of unbelievable weather.”
Villarreal coach Javier Calleja felt his side missed too many chances as they sought to overcome a 3-1 first-leg deficit.
“We’ve given two serious performances. We really showed up in each match. The first leg probably marked the way this quarter-final would end up,” Calleja said.
“We created lots of chances, which against Valencia is tough. But we missed too many – we didn’t quite have the definition to tuck them away.”
