2021 Villarreal FC were the seventh best team in Spain, 2022 they are among the eight best in Europe. Although coach Unai Emery is currently cheating.
It’s not entirely unlikely, because PSG are still strangers to the principle of team despite great quality in the squad, that many football fans would answer the question about the five best European clubs right now as follows: Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea from England, Germany’s record champions FC Bayern and Real Madrid. The order is a moot point.
This quintet is unsurprisingly in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, where the eternally unpleasant Atletico have also made it once again. In seventh position is Benfica, who benefited in the group from a historically weak FC Barcelona and a portion of luck in the round of 16 against Ajax. And then there’s Villarreal FC.
Villarreal only finished seventh last season
The Submarinos finished seventh in last season’s championship (Villarreal are currently seventh), but they also won the Europa League. For they have the coach who has virtually leased success in his favourite competition. He triumphed with Sevilla FC in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and with Villarreal in 2021. Now, however, Unai Emery wants to cheat.
“I’m in love with the Europa League, but now I want to enjoy the Champions League,” the 50-year-old quipped at the press conference, after he had thrown “one of the favourites” out in a big way with Juventus. A knockout phase is a knockout phase, and Emery knows how to do that.
“I have to congratulate him, he did it right,” Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri was quick to praise after initially complaining about Emery’s approach (“They had nine men behind the ball and for a while they didn’t even want to counter”).
“We defended deep and had patience. Then when we turned it up, we were able to hurt their defence. And after the opening goal, spaces opened up,” the Basque explained of his almost perfectly executed plan. It was patience in particular that Juve had ultimately lacked.
The Royals also failed to score twice
“Our keeper was great and we were lucky with the crossbar,” Emery admitted. But neither will hurt if they are to make a splash in the Champions League as underdogs. “We have to rehearse a lot of things and work hard” – that, too, only makes a well-rehearsed side, who have also held Real Madrid to two goalless draws with a more dominant approach, more dangerous.
Thanks to his meticulousness and adaptability, Emery’s fling, his “special” spring in the Champions League, has no limits for now. The Submarinos, who even made it to the semi-finals in 2006 with Juan Roman Riquelme or Diego Forlan, would certainly forgive him for their successful coach.
