Mazzarri laments ´unlucky´ defeat

Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri believes his team did not deserve to exit the Europa League at the hands of Villarreal on Thursday.

Serie A contenders Napoli drew 0-0 at home to Villarreal in the first leg of their round-of-32 tie at the Stadio San Paolo on February 17.

They took the lead through the highly-rated Slovak Marek Hamsik and struck the woodwork four times throughout the return match at Villarreal’s El Madrigal.

But goals from Brazil forward Nilmar and Giuseppe Rossi sent the Spanish hosts through to the next round 2-1 on aggregate.

“Today we were unlucky,” Mazzarri said.

“It is not easy to come to this stadium and impose your game, but I have to congratulate my players, we played a good match.”

Mazzarri also felt that his team should have been awarded a penalty by Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir.”We see that it is written that we don’t go through,” he said.

“There was a penalty our way, and we didn’t deserve to go out.””From a general point of view, we couldn’t have done any better, we were simply unlucky.”