Villarreal vs Rayo Vallecano preview - Garrido: We must recover from Rossi loss

Posted Saturday, October 29, 2011 by PA

Villarreal coach Juan Carlos Garrido has told his players they must show courage and teamwork to help overcome the loss of striker Giuseppe Rossi.

The Yellow Submarine's miserable start to the season got even worse on Thursday with the news Rossi will be sidelined for six months after suffering cruciate ligament damage.

Garrido told the club's website: "He is a much loved person and it hurts to see him like this, but the team must keep going without Rossi's contribution.

"He is a great player with great ambition, but what has happened must make the rest of the squad pluck up the courage to do the best they can. We have to get over these injuries."

Pressure was already mounting on Garrido as Villarreal currently sit in the relegation zone and bottom of their Champions League group with only one win in their last 12 matches.

The beleaguered coach has described this weekend's match against Rayo as being like a final.

He told the club's website: "It is the first final of the season. We need the support of everyone.

"Hopefully El Madrigal will be full and they will all be there to support us. If we are all together it will be much easier to beat Rayo Vallecano.

"We have to be watchful from the first minute and go for the kill and if we are 25,000 united, I am sure we will win."

Rossi's injury comes at the worst possible time as with Nilmar also out for another month, Villarreal currently have just one fit striker in Marco Ruben.

However there is some slight relief for Garrido with the news full-back Angel Lopez is fit again after nine months out with a knee injury.

By contrast Rayo have had a great week as back-to-back wins over Real Betis and Malaga moved them into the top half of the table.

However manager Jose Ramon Sandoval has tried to dampen expectations and says survival is still the main priority.

He told Efe: "The table right now is anecdotal, although the results are due to the hard work of the team.

"We know what we are and for us the best example is Levante, who with a small budget is the leader of the league.

"Although we are close (to the European places), qualifying for Europe isn't realistically what this club is looking for and until we are certain to stay up I am not going to speak of anything else."

Pedro Botelho scored the opener against Malaga on Wednesday night but he hasn't travelled with the squad due to a thigh injury.