Villarreal unhinges Bayern

Direct Chronicle

The most conservative version of Villarreal was an insurmountable wall for the most erratic Bayern of the last decade, a team that has lost momentum, conviction, and, finally, organization.

On the counterattack, thanks to a stroke of ingenuity from Gerard Moreno that broke down half of the defense, Danjuma made it 1-0, and the whole team grabbed onto that nail to get on the nerves of a progressively intemperate rival.

Bayern finished the night in a dejected state, unable to produce a single dangerous shot over Rulli's goal and exposed to the blows of the local team, as solid in their field as lackluster in the last meters, where their most decisive players seem cold from waiting so long for a ball.

Danjuma's goal, for now,

VLLVillarreal

1

Rulli, Juan Foyth (Aurier, min. 80), Estupiñán, Pau Torres, Albiol, Giovani Lo Celso, Parejo, Coquelin (Alfonso Pedraza, min. 58), Capoue, Arnaut Danjuma (Chukwueze, min. 80) and Gerard Moreno

Bay Bayern

0

Neuer, Alphonso Davies, Benjamin Pavard (Niklas Süle, min. 70), Lucas, Dayotchanculle Upamecano, Kingsley Coman, Gnabry (Sane, min. 61), Jamal Musiala, Müller (Leon Goretzka, min. 61), Joshua Kimmich and Lewandowski

Goals

1-0 min.

7: Arnaut Danjuma.

Referee

Anthony Taylor

Yellow cards Estupiñán (min. 73)

"We deserved to lose," said Julian Nagelsmann, the visiting coach, crestfallen in the empty conference room after a match that exhibited a credit crunch in his locker room.

"We didn't play well in any aspect."

The German's counterpart, Unai Emery, had spent the entire season organizing a resistance unit based on control and security.

The positioning of this Villarreal is cautious, the advances cautious and the developments are slowed down to avoid the error.

If the games, like the mountain passes, offer vertiginous descents, Parejo has the instruction to tighten the handlebar brake so that the bicycle does not go too fast.

"We have to play as a family," Rulli said, "we all have to think the same."

This philosophy of inhibition in community is good for stability, but it condemns the most lucid men to sporadic appearances.

The footballers who, like Trigueros or Danjuma, are capable of thinking and executing things that others cannot even imagine,

they are relegated to fulfilling tasks so conditioned by the principle of prudence that they become secondary actors and sometimes end up disconnected from the parties due to boredom.

That Villarreal, with one of the three best squads in Spain, is only seventh in the League, is the consequence of procedures that do not finish activating the existing potential on a regular basis and that, however, have shaped a team that injected with the emotion of the Champions League, he becomes a bone.

Bayern soon discovered it, perhaps appearing at La Cerámica confused by the rustic setting of orchards, ditches and marshes, so far removed from the urban sophistication imagery of the first world club football tournament.

To begin with, the German team lost midfield.

For Kimmich, an overrated player, the game surprised him on one of his days of loss.

Neither the agitated Müller to his right, nor the fledgling Musiala to his left, helped him find his bearings, and the spaces that opened up between the Bayern lines uncovered a garden of opportunity.

Set to counterattack, the simplest and most direct pass from Foyth to Lo Celso on the right flank found imbalances in the visiting defense.

Ten minutes had not passed when Lo Celso connected with Gerard Moreno, and the midfielder,

stuck on the side line and over by Davies, he invented a pass to the bottom line that opened all the doors of the goal.

Lo Celso's center was finished off by Parejo and deflected into the net by Danjuma.

Neither Kimmich nor Upamecano saw them coming.

Surprised and beaten, Bayern set about the unpleasant task of arranging their midfielders to work through Emery's barricades.

The replacement of Trigueros in favor of Coquelin, the election of Lo Celso to the detriment of Pino, or the ownership of the obedient Foyth before the daring Aurier, formed a thick block like concrete.

As dense for circulation as it is useful against unimaginative teams like Juventus, or like this Bayern that after a decade of success is going through a period of doubt.

His eventful transit through the Bundesliga is revealing.

Bayern's attacks faded to the flanks, usually towards Coman's position, and ended with blind crosses.

Neither Lewandowski nor Müller had clean balls in the face of the general drought.

Davies, who returned from injury, played as if he had no feeling in his feet, and Musiala never found his place, dragged down by the disorder of a team that did not know how to be creative - he did not shoot on goal until Davies did not hook a forehand from outside the box in the 66th minute—nor managed to press effectively.

For a long hour, Bayern was exposed to Villarreal's counterattacks.

Led without too many lights by Lo Celso, or suddenly illuminated by Moreno, each of the advances opened unusual channels in the rival coverage line.

A goal disallowed for Coquelin in the first half by the VAR, for offside, a shot at the post by Gerard Moreno, and two arrivals by Danjuma saved ultimately by Lucas Hernández's striker, put the nerves of the impassive Neuer to the test. and pushed Bayern to the brink of collapse.

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