Villarreal gave us a magical night on this kind of matches. The team of Unai Emery suffered during all the match and achieved to draw at the end of the match with a goal of Samu Chukwueze. Surprisingly Bayern is out from Champions League and they did not beat Villarreal.
This qualifying round was basically the perfect definition of football. The worst team (Bayern with better players and a high salary for signings) could not win Villarreal yesterday, a city of approximately 50.000 residents. This is one of the biggest exploits of the club on the 99 years history of the club.
The match was totally controlled by the team of Julian Nagelsmann. The had more posession, more shots and more plays on rival area than “yellow submarine”. Despite of this facts, Villareal scored in minute 88´the last goal of the match and the goal that certified his ticket to semifinals. They will probably play against Liverpool the semifinals. Benfica has too difficult comeback a result of 3-1 on Anfield. However, as we saw on this matches, everything is possible.
The match of Unai Emery´s team was brilliant. They had a clear role on this second leg and they achieved easily. The defensive system of Spanish team was really great. Pau Torres and Raul Albiol (with 36 years old and MVP of the game) completed a good work tonight defending one of the best strikers in the world, Robert Lewandowski. Foyth and Estupiñan had also incredible performance defending fast players like Coman, Gnabry or Leroy Sane. German team had 24 shots on Ruli´s goal.
The amazing job that Unai Emery has done with this team is also admirable. He arrives to a Champions League semifinals with a team that no one expects. And if they won Bayern, they will have also possibilities to win Liverpool or Benfica and go to final.
With this result, Villarreal will have to wait rival between Liverpool or Benfica. In Liga Santander, they have to try to go to Champions League places and play as good as they can. On the other side, Bayern has a lot of chances to win (one more time) the league. So they will fight for this bounty and prepare as best as they can the 2022-2023 season.
Jorge Barbero
