Villarreal were superior over the two legs – Marcelino

Marcelino believes Villarreal’s progression to the Europa League quarter-finals was just rewards for their superiority against Bayer Leverkusen over two legs.

A 0-0 stalemate in Thursday’s last-16 second leg at the BayArena was enough for Villarreal following their 2-0 victory in the home tie last week.

It was a fine example of defending a lead from the Liga side, who were happy to sit deep and allow Leverkusen large spells of possession and they had chances to win the match themselves with Denis Suarez, Roberto Soldado and Manu Trigueros missing presentable opportunities.

And head coach Marcelino praised the way his side handled the tie over both legs.

“We have shown over the two legs that we were superior,” he said. “The team deserves much credit for what they done this season.

“They were dominant at stages in the first half and we lost some balls, but then we had them pretty controlled.

“In the second half we controlled the match and at the end we could have won it.”

Villarreal have had a tough run in the knockout stages, having also overcome Napoli, and Marcelino is hoping for a kinder draw in the last eight.

“We have played against Napoli and Bayer and didn’t have luck with the draw,” he added. “Let’s see if we now have a bit of luck in the draw.”