Villarreal CF president confident after strong start to the season
Fernando Roig, president of Villarreal CF, has said he is happy with his team's performances so far this season.
The Juan Carlos Garrido-coached team have won four league games and lost one, leaving them in second place in the La Liga table. Their last victory came away to Malaga on Monday, when five first-half goals
settled the score at 3–2.
“I really liked what I saw. The team is playing very good football, and they are playing as a united group," Roig said. "But we have to go game by game. For many weeks we have been producing these good
performances, which is critical. Even though it is only a few weeks since the season began, I am pleased that we are doing very well.”
12 seasons in the top league
Villarreal was founded in 1923, and the club worked its way up the regional leagues in Spain before being promoted to the Segunda Division for the 1992–1993 season.
The team played their first season in the Primera Division in 1998–1999, and have since spent 12 seasons in the first league. In 2005, the club finished third in the league after striker Diego Forlan became
Spanish top scorer.
During the following season, Villarreal reached the semi-finals of the Champions League, where they suffered defeat to Arsenal, as they did in the quarter-finals three years later.
But despite these disappointments in Europe, Roig said that the club has high hopes of progressing from the group stage of the Europa League, where it was gifted a place after RCD Mallorca's poor finances
forced the club to withdraw from the competition.
“We must now begin to think of the Europa League, which is the most immediate and is a competition in which we have high hopes.”
Villarreal host Belgian side Club Brugge on Thursday. In the last round, the Spaniards travelled to Dinamo Zagreb, where they lost 2–0.
Tags: