Villarreal coach Unai Emery is very impressed with Champions League rivals Atalanta and sees the two clubs ‘mirror’ each other in their history and approach.
It kicks off on Wednesday at 20.00 GMT at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo.
In order to reach the Round of 16, La Dea need a victory, which would push Villarreal down to the third place and the Europa League.
“We see this as an opportunity because we want to play our game and reach the Round of 16,” said Emery in his press conference.
“Villarreal have already been in this situation twice before and we want to write history against a very good team, who we see as something of a mirror to ourselves.
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“We are similar clubs in that we don’t have the same history or infrastructure as other sides, but we want to fight it out with the European football elite. Atalanta have excellent players, a fantastic coach, so this is a real challenge for us.
“It’s going to be fantastic tomorrow. We changed our fitness training to prepare for this game but maintained our mentality and general approach.
“Atalanta are good in possession, we must play with intelligence and realise they’ll force us to defend on the edge of our own area, but we are not going to play for a draw. That is not our mentality, we always play to win.
“At the same time, Atalanta absolutely need to win, so they will have an explosive performance.”