Marcelino: "The draw is inexplicable; the ball doesn't want to go in"

Marcelino García Toral described the 0-0 draw against Espanyol on Matchday 24 of the LaLiga season as "inexplicablee" in his post match press conference, with his side having enjoyed the better of the opportunities in the Sunday afternoon fixture.

“This hurts a lot, and even more so after seeing the way these last two league games have gone. There are inexplicable situations in football; the ball just doesn't want to go in," he said.

"That's what is happening to us in LaLiga. We've had 9 draws at home, and in some of those games we even deserved to have won heavily. Today the opposition shot just once, in the 60th minute, and we had clear opportunities. They defended with nine players at the back and we weren't able to put away our clear chances."

"In eight days, we've played two games that have had the same problems as always: We aren't being effective. I can only be proud of the work that the players are doing. We are believing, we're getting chances, but we aren't finishing them off. It's hard to explain why this is happening."

"We're getting chances and sometimes we aren't finishing them off because we are rushing. As the minutes go by, the nerves increase. The players want to score, but we aren't getting the luck. I can't ask for more from my players, as the dominance over the opposition was obvious."

Marcelino also praised his side's efforts in the absence of several important players, explaining that "We've been playing a game every three days, and Valencia CF always compete. We have players out and the players maintain their will to win; they push right until the end, but are just missing goals. Now we're on a run of games in which we have been much better than the opposition in the second half. I'd love to have an explanation as to why there have been so many draws."

"Without goals, there aren't victories. What more can I ask of my players though? No opponent has been better than us at Mestalla."