As soon as the final whistle sounded on Bayern Munich’s Champions League aspirations for another season, the Allianz Arena speakers blared “Bitter Sweet Symphony” and “The Show Must Go On,” but Villarreal fans wouldn’t have heard one of those melancholy tunes.
They were too preoccupied with their team’s 2-1 aggregate victory in the Champions League semifinals. Unai Emery’s extraordinary team had stunned a European superpower once more. The “Yellow Submarine” earned a semifinal meeting against either Liverpool or Benfica after a 1-0 triumph over Bayern at El Madrigal last week was followed by a 1-1 tie in Germany.
Liverpool are very certain to cement themselves as Villarreal’s opponents in the final four when they host the return leg at Anfield on Wednesday, leading 3-1 from the first leg in Lisbon. Even the most cynical Liverpool fan will rejoice at Villarreal’s progress; despite their awful performance over the two games, Bayern Munich are still the six-time and Bundesliga champions. Villarreal, on the other hand, are what they’ve always been: a squad that punches well beyond its weight.
They are a team from a town with a population of just 51,000 people, less than half the size of Barcelona’s Camp Nou, and they had never won a major trophy before last season’s dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over Manchester United in the Europa League final in Gdansk, Poland.
Villarreal secured the final Champions League spot this season as a result of that win, and they have made the most of it. Emery’s team surprised Juventus in Turin in the Round of 16 to eliminate the Italian heavyweights, and they have now defeated Bayern.
“You have to beat the major teams if you want to achieve anything in this league,” Emery remarked. “With Juventus, we took the first step [in the last 16]. We did a good job with Bayern in terms of game analysis.”
Regardless of what Bayern manager Julian Nagelsmann achieves domestically this season, his first year as Bayern coach will be seen as a failure as a result of this result, as he himself conceded.
“We’ve been eliminated from the German Cup and the Champions League. This isn’t good enough for Bayern, in my opinion. We set a minimum target of reaching the semifinals, but we fell short “Nagelsmann stated the following.”It ranks among my top three losses.”
Villarreal, on the other hand, continues to roll. In less than a year, this modest team from a small town in northeastern Spain has defeated Manchester United, Juventus, and Bayern Munich, three legendary clubs with a combined total of 11 Champions League titles. So, if it turns out to be Jurgen Klopp’s team, Liverpool should be wary of underestimating Villarreal, since they are a very well-drilled and organised club. They are dedicated and hardworking, with a penchant for upsetting European football royalty. Villarreal had every player behind the eighteen-yard line at one point in the first half in an attempt to delay Bayern, and it worked.
To make matters worse for the hosts, Villarreal took advantage of every opportunity to end the game by wasting time or taking advantage of any challenge that would cause one of their players to claim injury. Despite having a wealth of attacking talent, Bayern failed to break through, and Villarreal had the greatest first-half chances, both of which were missed by Danjuma and Gerard Moreno.
However, it appeared certain that Bayern would rush to victory by exploiting openings in the Villarreal defence when Robert Lewandowski put Bayern ahead and even the aggregate scores on 52 minutes by scoring off a Thomas Muller cross. Despite having 24 shots on goal, Bayern only managed four of them to be on target. Bayern lacked guile and were as predictable offensively as Villarreal’s defensive strategy. On 71 minutes, Thomas Muller squandered an easy chance by heading Leroy Sane’s cross wide from six yards, but Villarreal were never in trouble. They’re never like that. They also have a counter-punch, which was demonstrated with devastating timing on 88 minutes when replacement Samu Chukwueze evaded the offside trap to score from Moreno’s feed.
Villarreal had won the game, set, and match, and Emery had pulled off another tactical triumph over a highly-rated coach. Emery, who was Arsenal’s coach for less than two seasons, has established himself as a European coach by winning four Europa Leagues, three with Sevilla and one with Villarreal. Will he be able to add a Champions League title to his tally this season? The odds are stacked against him, but Villarreal has proven time and time again that betting against them is a perilous proposition, regardless of how prominent their opponents are.
