Villarreal showed yesterday night that their ceiling in this Champions League is not the quarterfinals. Or at least, they have the spirit and courage to fight to reach the semifinals of this competition; for the second time in their history. After a magnificent and surprising victory with a score of 1-0 at La Cerámica stadium, they won against one of the most powerful teams in the world in recent years, Bayern Munich. A team that had 22 consecutive games away from home without losing in Europe.
Bayern’s last Champions League away defeat was in September 2017, when PSG, which was led at the time by Unai Emery, crushed them 3-0. Today Villarreal gave another surprise and stopped the aspirations of a rival who was facing this tie as a favorite and now they will have to come back to Munich.
First Half
Unai Emery, now Villarreal manager, opted for a more physical and experienced midfield with Francis Coquelin and Yeremy Pino. The coach’s aim of shutting down Bayern’s passing lanes was aided by Villarreal’s quick goal.
It was barely in the 8th minute when a great collective action at the first touch led to the 1-0 for Villarreal. Gerard Moreno, from the right-wing, made a deep pass to Giovani Lo Celso. He then made a cross from the baseline that was finished off in the first instance by Dani Parejo and Arnaut Danjuma managed to deflect the trajectory of the ball into the net against the dislodged German goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer.
With the score in favor, Villarreal put a perfect wall and, with the MVP of the match, Giovani Lo Celso, very committed to all the work of his team, he did not give any gaps to a Bayern that felt uncomfortable to the point that Robert Lewandowski hardly entered the game, it is more, it seemed that he was not on the field.
Second Half
The German goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer did not stop receiving scares in his area, some caused by himself. In the first half, he saw how a center-shot from Coquelin turned into a great goal that slipped into the far post. But, the VAR annulled the action due to a previous offside. Later, it was Gerard who had three very clear scoring chances.
Nagelsmann tried to turn the game around with Sané, Goretzka and Sule. And Bayern was indeed the dangerous team with fast attacks we all know, pushing Villarreal into their goal, but even so, Bayern’s first shot on goal came in the 60th minute.
Villarreal knew how to withstand every attack from Bayern and achieved an excellent victory that allows them to dream of being in the next phase of this tournament.
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