Marcelino: "We're just starting the season and this helps us to learn"

Marcelino reflected on his side's perfomance in the LaLiga season opener against Real Sociedad in his post-match press conference, explaining his disappointment with the 1-1 final score.

The match
"I don't think it was bad luck. We didn't take the three points because we let the opponents off with several chances to make it 2-0, and we made some serious mistakes. We only conceded one goal from open play and one from a corner in preseason, as well as three from penalties. And we conceded another penalty today. It's a shame to have dropped two points in the 100th minute. The only difference was that Real Sociedad converted their penalty and we missed ours, but it would be too easy to limit our analysis to this.
We let a game that we had practically sewn up get away from us, and our opponents only created two dangerous chances. The clearest was in stoppage time at the end of the first half, and the second was the penalty. We're just starting the season and it helps us to learn, and to remember that if we aren't competitive right to the end, then surprises can happen."

The team's play
"Overall, I think that there were spells in which we were excessively imprecise, losing balls easily -which generated a lack of continuity in our play. I think that we had the clearer chances in the game, including some very, very clear ones. I think that the midfield, like the rest of the team, did a very good job. We were very good defensively. Maybe we struggled with fluidity in the midfield in some moments of the game, as we used too many touches in that area of the field compared to other games. Maybe the heat also affected us in terms of our movement at times. But the game was ours to win. When you create the chances that we did today, and your opposition so little, and you concede a penalty in stoppage time from practically their only chance, besides that at the end of the first half, you have to kill the game off. Today we lacked what we needed to take two more points. We come away with a draw, which feels like too little."

VAR
"VAR is very important, because it brings justice to the game, but only in Spain do you see referees taking five minutes to make the decision, with the technology available. In other places they don't take more than a minute. We would like the speed of the decision making with VAR to be quicker. Five minutes is too much, and we should avoid that."