The 1-0 (1-0) for the Spaniards, who many experts call “unlucky”, can certainly be corrected in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals in Munich on April 12th. But what FC Villarreal is capable of away from home, he proved in the round of 16 with a 3-0 win at Juventus Turin – the first leg ended 1-1.
“Eventually it became hara-kiri”
Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann honestly admitted after the game at DAZN: “We deserved to lose. We had little power in the first half, in the second it was wild. It wasn’t a good game from us. At some point it became hara-kiri, we had too many easy turnovers.”
Thomas Müller didn’t want to gloss over anything either: “We weren’t able to deliver the game we wanted. We didn’t have that power offensively, that multitude of chances. We started the second half with more anger, but then it got a bit wild. Take this 1-0 we go along with it. It could have gone higher. We have to prepare for the second leg and fight back.”
Robert Lewandowski completely unsubscribed
Bayern had already completely screwed up the first half on Wednesday evening (April 6th, 2022). Villarreal coach Unai Emery gave his 17 colleagues in the Bundesliga a lesson in how to take Robert Lewandowski out of the game. The all-time top scorer had 13 ball actions in the first 47 minutes and didn’t have a single shot. It didn’t get any better until the final whistle.
But that wasn’t just due to the intelligent defensive strategy of the “Yellow Submarines”, as the home fans call the current seventh-placed team in the Primera Division. Virtually nothing useful came from Bayern’s central midfield with the largely invisible Joshua Kimmich and Jamal Musiala, Müller didn’t take place, nor did the wingers Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry.
Bayern offside trap overturned twice
It was therefore flattering that Bayern were only allowed to go into the break a goal behind. In the 8th minute, Arnaut Danjuma gave the hosts the lead after Munich’s offside trap was overturned twice. Both when Gerard Moreno passed Lo Celso, only a few, but not all, Bayern played offside. Lucas Hernandez was also too deep during the subsequent pass from Dani Parejo to Danjuma, so that Manuel Neuer’s claim arm wasn’t really worth it.
Just before the break, the Villarreal players celebrated again, and this time not even Neuer complained: Francis Coquelin had surprised the Bayern keeper with a slightly slipped cross that went into the far post. But luckily for Munich, the video assistant referee intervened: Coquelin had previously been marginally offside.
Neuer-Patzer goes unpunished
Despite all these shortcomings, Nagelsmann saw no reason to make a change during the break – and the game continued with little change. However, Villarreal’s chances to counterattack grew bigger and bigger. Above all, the Munich team never got the outstanding Moreno under control. In the 53rd minute the left post saved for the already beaten Neuer, four minutes later Antonio Davies’ tackle prevented the 0:2.
Neuer almost gave it to himself in the 63rd minute. With an attempted through ball, the keeper played directly into Moreno’s foot on the center line, who had the completely empty goal in front of him – but his shot went wide to the right.
No big fuss
After that, Bayern increasingly noticed that moving out of the defensive too risky could also lead to complete ruin. There was no longer any question of a real revolt after that, and yet there were always spaces that could easily have led to 2-0 and 3-0 for Villarreal. Sometimes Lo Celso hesitated too long to finish (73′), then Pedraza missed the big chance to score the second goal and aimed wide to the left.