Eusebio thrilled with La Real’s attitude at El Madrigal

Eusebio Sacristán said he was delighted with the performance his Real Sociedad side displayed at El Madrigal on Sunday night, telling reporters in the post-match press conference that the team now has to compete at the same

High intensity, concentration and competitiveness: “The team is competing once again and played superbly this evening. I think the players gave the two things which we were lacking and which this team has always searched for. Competing at this level has always paid off for us and it’s something we must maintain and show every time we play, in every game, whoever we face. Tonight, we also played some quality football and maintained possession of the ball. As for chances on goal, both sides had more or less the same number of attempts. Villarreal are a quality team who know how to play even when they don’t have control of the game or the ball. We put in exactly the kind of game we wanted; the players were fantastic and gave the sensation that this is the level we must show every day”.

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Playing aVillarreal side who have only lost two league games at home this season: “The idea was to keep the ball moving and not labour on it too long – once you lose the ball against Villarreal, they are very dangerous. We needed our midfielders to drop back to help us when they attacked us and the players upfront had to press them constantly. We played the kind of game we had to play to take something positive from here, it’s always a complicated ground and I told the players before the game that we have to earn this and do everything well because if we don’t they will give us a lot of problems. So I am very happy with how the team performed”.

Diego Reyes in the sweeper/destroyer role: “This was the kind of game in which we needed someone in the sweeper position to help the defence out, and to deal with the four players Villarreal have up front – the two strikers and the men on either wing. It helped us a lot to have someone like Diego Reyes who is conscious at all times of what’s going on behind him – that was a real help to our back four because Markel Bergara is a player who tends to go forward more and he was able to press Villarreal’s midfield pair in the centre of the park and stop them from generating play and spreading the ball around. Up front, they have a lot of variants - many different ways of attacking, so with Markel and Asier we could neutralize Pina and Bruno which I thought we achieved, with Diego playing just in front of the defence to check the players who move between lines, as well as helping us to conduct the ball out of our own half. I was pleased with Diego, Asier, Markel... the whole team”.