Villarreal and Juventus tied yesterday in the Round of 16 first leg. The match was really attractive and full of chances all the 90 minutes.
Villarreal backs to this playoffs with a very good actuation against one of the best teams in this competition. Despite of local team had a lot of injured players (Coquelin or Moreno) the team of Unai Emery knows how to play and stand up to a big ones of Europe. The confrontation started bad for “yellow submarine”. One of the best strikers currently put ahead Juventus with a amazing goal in 34 seconds. By the way, Dusan Vlahovic scored the quickest goal by a starter in all the history of Champions League. The striker arrived this winter from Fiorentina with a prize of 80 millions. The 22-years-old demonstrated why Juventus picked him for replacing Cristiano Ronaldo. He will be one of the best players in a close future accompanied by guys like Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappé.
However, Villarreal did a very good match. From the goal of Juventus, the team started to reach the Juventus area and created a lot of goal chances. Dani Parejo got a goal back for Villarreal in second half. Also, the fans generated a very good environment typical of this special nights.
In addition, they were a lot of players from both teams that completed stunning performance during all the game. About the Spanish team, we can stand out the Argentine midfielder Lo Celso and Dani Parejo (he got the MVP). In the Italian team McKennie (was changed by a massive injury) and Vlahovic completed an amazing exhibition. The big controversy in this match was a red card forgiven to Adrian Rabiot due to a tough foul in the second half. VAR didn´t enter in this play. So players and fans of Villarreal got angry because this final decision.
With this outcome everything is open for the return in the Juventus Stadium. The Italian club is obvious favorite. Although Unai Emery´s team would could be able to spring a surprise. We will see what happens on March 16. In this world, things can change very fast in a month (injuries, bad sensations, problems inside the team). So it´s sure that will be a completely different match that we saw yesterday.
Jorge Barbero
