Villarreal coach Unai Emery says they deserved their Copa del Rey defeat to Real Sporting.
Emery concedes they were undermanned for the 2-1 defeat.
He explained, “We were excited about the cup. We wanted to be in with a chance for fighting for the title, but we knew it would be tough. We came into the game on the back of a lot of matches, we have players out and players at the Africa Cup of Nations. In this competition, you need to be consistent and we weren’t today.
“We congratulated them. They played the game they wanted to play, they capitalised on their chances and they found the way of winning. We found it hard to hurt them in the first half. They put in a great performance, focused and well-organised defensively.
“They closed the spaces well and tried to attack quickly. In the second half, we brought on Gerard to try and generate more danger. We started the second half well, but we needed more. At the end, they had their chance and they came away with the win.”
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