Valencia players earn Emery plaudits

Unai Emery feels his Valencia side proved their quality by progressing in the Copa del Rey, despite a 2-1 defeat to Sevilla on Wednesday.

Visitors Valencia, leading 1-0 from the first leg on January 5, went ahead through Roberto Soldado in the 67th minute of Wednesday’s match.

Sevilla then netted twice to win 2-1 on the night, but it was Valencia who reached the quarter-finals of the competition 2-2 on aggregate courtesy of the away goals rule.

Speaking afterwards, Emery described the two-legged contest against Sevilla as “tough and demanding”.

“Our team had quality and maturity and we showed this by moving on in the tournament,” he said.

“We could not handle Sevilla in the opening 20-25 minutes, when they put on a lot of pressure and had good chances to score.”

“From that moment on, we showed personality and we had chances on goal. In the second half, we had control of the match until the goal.”

“After that, we began to suffer, but we managed to hold it.”

Valencia’s opponents in the last eight will be Levante, who defeated Segunda Division team Alcorcon 5-2 on aggregate.