The Spanish club Villarreal signed “an epic victory” in Rennes (3-2) on Thursday to qualify directly for the round of 16 of the Europa League, said its coach, Marcelino, after the match.
“It was crazy what happened today,” continued the short-lived former Marseille coach (7 matches) at the start of the season. His players took the lead three times, Gerard Moreno on a penalty (0-1, 36th), Ilias Akhomach (1-2, 62nd) and Daniel Parejo (2-3, 80th), but Rennes, who had equalized by Lorenz Assignon (1-1, 37th) and Ludovic Blas (2-2, 79th), had a goal canceled in added time by the VAR.
“In my opinion we shouldn’t have had such a crazy second half because we had a lot of opportunities to kill the match,” underlined Marcelino, whose players dominated most of the debates.
“We gave everything we had and we are really proud to have achieved what we wanted, to win here and qualify for the round of 16,” he concluded. Rennes will play a play-off in February against one of the teams who finished third in the Champions League.
