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Juan Foyth was the first to jump to celebrate the goals scored by his teammates on the pitch.
In the Tottenham dugout, his usual room, there was no player more disciplined or generous than this ruddy Argentine with a youthful air.
When they transferred him to Villarreal, in 2020, the club chaired by Daniel Levy had been looking for a way out for a long time.
In England he had no market.
The indefinite center-backs never worked there, which are neither imposed by their physical conditions nor do they contribute anything in attack.
Unai Emery, however, pointed to him as one of his pillars.
Set to build the Villarreal that stirred in his imagination, the Ondarribia coach postponed Aurier, Rubén Peña and Mario Gaspar, the three specialists of the squad on the right side, all with good management and association conditions.
Instead, he saw the solution in Foyth, a footballer who went on to confess that he never felt entirely comfortable lying on the wing, where he feared his innate difficulties in driving the ball would surface.
"I am central," he said, as if nostalgic for a lost innocence.
BAYBayern
one
Neuer, Dayotchanculle Upamecano, Lucas (Alphonso Davies, min. 86), Benjamin Pavard, Joshua Kimmich, Jamal Musiala (Gnabry, min. 81), Müller (Choupo-Moting, min. 89), Leon Goretzka, Lewandowski, Kingsley Coman and Heal
VLL Villarreal
one
Rulli, Albiol, Estupiñán, Pau Torres, Juan Foyth, Giovani Lo Celso, Coquelin (Chukwueze, min. 83), Capoue, Parejo (Aurier, min. 92), Arnaut Danjuma (Alfonso Pedraza, min. 84) and Gerard Moreno
Goals
1-0 min.
51: Lewandowski.
1-1 min.
87: Chukwueze.
Referee
Slavko Vincic
Yellow cards Lewandowski (min. 32), Juan Foyth (min. 58) and Giovani Lo Celso (min. 90)
The choice of his right back explains the elementary principle that Emery has followed in the meticulous construction of this Villarreal that on Tuesday in Munich reached the second semifinals in its history in the Champions League.
Above all, it is important not to make mistakes.
Given the choice between attacking the rival and temporizing to stay alive as long as possible in the matches, Emery has no doubts.
The message of prudence was implicit in each of his decisions, beginning with the composition of a midfielder line with Capoue, Parejo, Lo Celso and Coquelin, players who were never characterized by gaining seconds from plays but by imposing additional pauses on plays. attacking transitions.
Exasperated by the slow pace of Villarreal's play, Bayern president the legendary Oliver Khan couldn't contain his frustration when he was asked about elimination after the 1-1 draw.
“They have wasted their time!” he protested.
Khan's bewilderment contrasted with Emery's imperturbability, who, whatever the outcome, never loses the enthusiasm that stirs in his inner world, populated by tactical circumstances that often only he perceives.
“We're not here to be told that we're very nice, or that we come from a small town,” he said.
“We want to go to the final.
And we want to play it."
Almost two decades after breaking into the First Division with Almería, and after extending a career of benches subjected to great social and historical pressures at Valencia, Sevilla, Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, the man has found in the bucolic Villarreal the most receptive ecosystem to ideas that have always taken root in it.
At Villarreal, the demand for titles is not imperative as it was at PSG, where Emery became the first coach of the Qatari-owned era to lose Ligue 1, in favor of Monaco, in 2017. demanded respect for an elaborate style of football, as happened at Arsenal, which also failed to qualify for the Champions League.
For not demanding, the Roig family, the owners of the club, have not protested the lack of regularity in the League, where the team finished seventh last year and is seventh now.
The leaders have overlooked the fact of having, as indicated by the sports directors of half of Spain, the richest League squad in variants, after that of Atlético.
The businessmen of the Castellón club have been satisfied with verifying that they were dealing with a hard-working man, someone who did not generate animosity or unnecessary tensions among the footballers, and who, to the happiness of all the fans, handled himself with ease in the qualifying tournaments.
For a club in need of a trophy to crown its prestige, the 2021 Europa League was a milestone.
For Emery it was a personal and professional vindication, as well as a kind of liberation.
The shortest winner in history
When he said “I was wrong” after leaving Arsenal, Emery acknowledged a wound in his pride and a sense of humility that allowed him to learn, accept his weaknesses and focus on what gave him certainty.
Not many coaches manage to get out of a pit like the one that almost swallowed his career in 2019. His escape route acquired a marked stamp that, by identification, has caused a furor in the most traditional sector of Italian football.
As one agent said: “The day Emery leaves Villarreal he will have a guaranteed contract in a Serie A grade”.
The war cry of Rulli, Albiol, Pau Torres and Parejo, the backbone of the team that tortured Juventus and Bayern, refers to the lead years of 'calcium'.
They all repeated the magic phrase that Emery instilled in them: "We have to know how to suffer."
They suffered as players suffer: without the ball.
Not only did they give up having it: just 35% of the action time.
When they appropriated it, they also gave up moving it with joy in search of the goal.
They did it with an admirable inhibition capacity.
Against Bayern, in 180 minutes of qualifying, Villarreal only allowed eight shots against their goal.
In return he only shot twice.
Never, since shots were recorded in 2004, has the winner of a Champions League tie achieved the pass by shooting so few times on goal.
This feat of dosage was settled with another feat of success: two goals.
One hundred percent success on the way to a classification that rewards Emery's prudence.
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