García: 'Dream is coming true'

Plight helped
Villarreal's plight was undoubtedly helped by the fact that Roma were missing a collection of influential players in captain Francesco Totti, Cristian Chivu, Olivier Dacourt, Daniele De Rossi, Vincent Candela and Marco Delvecchio but the result left García insisting: "Now the dream is coming true."

Calm finishing
Sonny Anderson and José Mari chalked up both goals before the break, the Brazilian striker opening the scoring in the 29th minute when he galloped on to a through-ball and calmly slotted a left foot shot into the corner before the former AC Milan forward doubled the lead six minutes later, converting Roger García's corner with a powerful header.

García delight
García, who has only been at the helm since the end of February following Benito Floro's surprise resignation, was delighted with the result, saying afterwards. "They are a very good team and there is still the second match to go but we were able to make the most of our chances tonight and that pleased me."

League woe
The Spanish side secured an impressive 2-2 away draw against Galatasaray SK in their first match under García and then defeated the Turkish side 3-0 at home. But their league form has been less impressive with losses at the hands of Sevilla FC, Club Athletic Bilbao and Real Zaragoza. García, however, was not resting on his laurels. He added: "The second match will be a different story as they have a lot of quality."

Poor defending
Roma coach Fabio Capello, meanwhile, attributed the defeat to a poor display before the interval, yet is still hopeful his team can turn the tie around on 25 March at the Stadio Olimpico. "We let Villarreal play with total freedom in the first half, when we didn’t play at all. It was as if we were still on the bench and we should have done more to avoid the goals. Still, we have a shout in the return and in the last 20 minutes we fashioned a few chances."