Villarreal (AP) – The bright sunshine on the eastern Spanish Mediterranean coast was not good after the mysteriously sluggish appearance of the disenchanted Bayern stars at Europa League champions FC Villarreal as a mood lifter.
The only ray of hope when checking out of the team hotel in the morning after the collective failure was still the result alone. The more than happy 0:1 gives the Munich side, who are suddenly no longer favored in the quarter-finals, every chance of realizing the semi-final smash against Jürgen Klopp’s FC Liverpool with a big football evening on April 12 in the Allianz Arena.
homecoming as a loser
“We’ll pull ourselves together,” leader Thomas Müller promised all Bayern fans who watched a Munich ensemble on the cabaret stage of the Estadio de la Cerámica that didn’t recognize themselves. Coach Julian Nagelsmann spoke words that you don’t normally hear from the dominator of the Bundesliga. “Little power” in the first half, “no chances to score”, turnovers. The second half was then “totally wild”, at some point “Harakiri”.
Even national goalkeeper Manuel Neuer suddenly wandered around far in front of his penalty area. Robert Lewandowski crept across the square like a ghost. Müller and Joshua Kimmich did not develop a plan.
After four and a half years (!), Captain Neuer and his staggering crew returned home from a Champions League trip abroad as losers for the first time. This statistic alone after 25 unbeaten games shows that something extraordinary happened in the first leg of the quarter-finals.
Only 0: 1: Confidence for the second leg
For the sixth time since 2014, Bayern are threatened with being eliminated by a Spanish club in the knockout phase of the biggest club competition. But not this time against one of the big three, Real Madrid (2014, 2017, 2018), FC Barcelona (2015) and Atlético Madrid (2016). But against the probably underestimated Europa League winner FC Villarreal – the supposed lucky ticket. Revealingly honest, Kimmich said the failure was mainly “due to our approach”.
“It’s not the opponent you can easily jump over,” was Müller’s insight. Nagelsmann named a core problem of the lack of energy and irritating non-performance: “If you give Villarreal little stress, they make few mistakes.” However, the opponent made a decisive shortcoming: The “Yellow Submarine” only scored one goal, that of the Dutchman Arnaut Danjuma right at the beginning.
This fed into Müller and Co.’s declarations of war. Especially since a 0:1 after the abolition of the away goals rule no longer poses the risk of earlier European Cup years. A Munich 2:1 or 3:2 in the second leg would not mean the end, but extra time. “The fact that it was only 0-1 gives us confidence for the second leg. We will show a different face,” assured Nagelsmann.
Kimmich: “Trust in our quality”
The 34-year-old will also have to learn lessons from the first quarter-finals. In the second leg, you need the dynamism of Leon Goretzka in midfield or the presence and stature of Niklas Süle in defense right from the start. Returnee Alphonso Davies could be a step further after building up his form again on Saturday in the Bundesliga against FC Augsburg. Even if the young Canadian will still need some time after his heart muscle inflammation “until he’s his old self again,” as Nagelsmann noted.
“I already have confidence in our quality. Everyone now knows what it’s about,” said Kimmich in a mixture of defiance and faith: “We’re able to score two or three goals in every game.”
In the round of 16, a happy 1-1 draw at Red Bull Salzburg in the second leg was followed by a 7-1 goal celebration in Munich. Problem: The Villarreal jersey is made up of savvy professionals and not young bulls from Salzburg who have no international experience. “It’s a typical Spanish team that can gamble,” said Nagelsmann on Wednesday evening. In this sentence, a great respect for the fright of favorites sounded through.
Villarreal also have a manager with a clear plan. Unai Emery decoded FC Bayern. His energetic team took the fun out of kicking the 30-goal offensive around Lewandowski, Müller, Coman. Incidentally, the 50-year-old Spaniard was Paris Saint-Germain coach in September 2017 when Bayern returned to Germany defeated after a 3-0 defeat in France.