Iñigo Perez believes the team struggled to capitalize on opportunities and lacked decisiveness in attack.

Despite Villarreal's impressive performance against Real Madrid, manager Iñigo Pérez was disappointed with the eventual defeat. Following the 0-1 away loss, Pérez spoke to the media, admitting that the players had worked hard at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium but were disappointed to fail to secure any points.  

Iñigo Perez said: "We didn't do well enough in converting our scoring opportunities, and we lacked decisiveness in attack, ultimately failing to translate our excellent overall performance into the result we wanted. Against a strong team, and in a stadium where the away team has historically struggled, we still played at a high level. However, it's difficult to remain optimistic after losing the game."  

When discussing the statistics from the match, Inigo Pérez did not overemphasize the team's advantage in several key indicators. He said, "If the league rankings were based on statistics, we should be near the top of the table right now. We will analyze these statistics later, and I believe they are sufficient to reflect the players' excellent performance in this match. However, given that we have just lost the game, now is not the time to delve into these data."  

Iñigo Perez admitted that he was indeed disappointed by the team's narrow defeat. However, he emphasized that Villarreal must continue on its current path and work towards improving their results. He stated, "When a match is decided by such a small margin, the disappointment is naturally more intense. We could see that the team had the ability to compete with our opponents and was getting closer to victory. When our performance deserves better but ultimately fails to achieve our goals, like today, it's inevitably regrettable."  

“However, we are always clear that the team must stay firmly on the current path. The players need to continue to trust the existing tactical philosophy, and from the current situation, they have indeed done so. We have a responsibility to provide them with the support and assurance they need so that they can focus on their work and lead the team back to winning ways as soon as possible.”  

Image source: Internet/Villarreal official website