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Unai Emery pleased with Valencia's display against Barcelona
The 40-year-old coach says that the Catalan giants deserved to go through and insisted that Roberto Soldado's absence alone does not justify the result
09-Feb-2012 6:12:42 AM
By Luis Mira
Goal.com / Shinichiro Ema
Valencia coach Unai Emery was happy with his side's display in the 2-0 Copa del Rey defeat at Barcelona.
Goals from Cesc Fabregas and Xavi gave Barca a place in the final and a 3-1 aggregate victory in the semi-finals following the 1-1 draw in the first leg at Mestalla last week.
Emery acknowledged that Pep Guardiola's side were the better team in the two-legged affair but noted that his players gave a good account of themselves.
"We have to give credit to Valencia for what they did against a great rival and great players," Emery said in the post-match press conference. "To beat them we have to do things better.
"We had two good matches against them but we missed something. The most important thing is that we had chances to score, which is positive, while the negative aspect was that we allowed them to create chances which we did not want them to have.
"We were unlucky enough to have good matches and good spells, but we could not beat Barca because of their quality. We knew this tie would be hard, but we remained hopeful.
"We knew we needed to have the perfect match against them, and it did not happen."
The Spanish coach then played down the fact that his side could not count on Roberto Soldado, who was ruled out of the match with flu.
"We have a large squad and we cannot depend on one player," Emery explained.
"Everyone should have worked harder, but we are always trying to improve. We seek a very high level but I trust my players, who took us to the semi-finals.
"Now we will focus on La Liga again and we are starting a new phase in the Europa League, we will need every player."
Goals from Cesc Fabregas and Xavi gave Barca a place in the final and a 3-1 aggregate victory in the semi-finals following the 1-1 draw in the first leg at Mestalla last week.
Emery acknowledged that Pep Guardiola's side were the better team in the two-legged affair but noted that his players gave a good account of themselves.
"We have to give credit to Valencia for what they did against a great rival and great players," Emery said in the post-match press conference. "To beat them we have to do things better.
"We had two good matches against them but we missed something. The most important thing is that we had chances to score, which is positive, while the negative aspect was that we allowed them to create chances which we did not want them to have.
"We were unlucky enough to have good matches and good spells, but we could not beat Barca because of their quality. We knew this tie would be hard, but we remained hopeful.
"We knew we needed to have the perfect match against them, and it did not happen."
The Spanish coach then played down the fact that his side could not count on Roberto Soldado, who was ruled out of the match with flu.
"We have a large squad and we cannot depend on one player," Emery explained.
"Everyone should have worked harder, but we are always trying to improve. We seek a very high level but I trust my players, who took us to the semi-finals.
"Now we will focus on La Liga again and we are starting a new phase in the Europa League, we will need every player."
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