In the 2021-22 Champions League quarter-finals, eight teams are playing each other in pairs, with Liverpool vs Benfica having the biggest disparity in strength, followed by Bayern vs Villarreal.
Although Villarreal is also a La Liga powerhouse, Bayern are one of the biggest favourites to win the title. In the first leg, Villarreal beat Bayern 1-0 at home, which was the biggest upset in the quarter-finals. So, in the second leg of the away game, can Villarreal continue to be upset - eliminating Bayern to advance to the semi-finals?
Bayern vs Villarreal
Nature of the competition: Second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals
Competition time: April 13, 3:00 a.m. Beijing time
In the 2019-20 season, Bayern won the Champions League strongly. In the 2020-21 season, starting from the Group Stage of the Champions League, Bayern's record is still strong, and the quarter-finals were eliminated by Paris, which itself is also one of the big favorites to win the title, of course, if it is not Lewan's injury, it may be another result.
After Euro 2020, Bayern coach Frick succeeded Loew in charge of the German national team, and at the end of the 2020-21 season, Nagelsmann succeeded Frick as Bayern's new manager.
During Nagelsmann's tenure, Bayern is still a favorite to win the Bundesliga and Champions League doubles, but compared with their predecessors, Bayern's record is not stable, often beating opponents by big scores, and can also lose miserably to opponents who are not strong. This makes the prospect of the championship full of variables. In the Bundesliga, if it were not for the strongest rival Dortmund always habitually dropping the chain, if there were a few more strong competitors like the Premier League, Bayern would now be difficult to sit at the top of the Bundesliga table. And in the Knockout Stage of the Champions League, good one is bad, you can't always solve the battle with the power of the second leg.
In the first leg of the quarter-finals, Bayern drew 1-1 with Red Bull Salzburg, a team outside the five major leagues, and returned to the home court to sweep the opponent 7-1 in the second leg to advance.
In the first leg of the quarter-finals, Bayern lost 0:1 away to Villarreal, which was not a disaster, and in the past, there were more losses, and the second leg returned to the home court to overturn. For example, in the 2014-15 Champions League quarter-finals, Bayern lost 3-1 away to Porto in the first leg and returned to the home court to win 6:1 in the second leg to advance. The first leg of the semi-finals was lost 3-0 away to Barca, this time without turning over, and the second leg back at home won 3-2 barca, but this was far from enough.
Villarreal is not a top team, and Emery is not a top coach. Emery was the manager of Ligue 1 supremacy Paris and Premier League giants Arsenal, but neither was successful. Emery is not a precarious or vain person, before taking charge of Paris, he led Sevilla to achieve a three-time Europa League title, which is unprecedented in the history of football.
It turns out that Emery can't control the top teams, and there is still a fair level of coaching quasi-first-class teams. No matter how far Villarreal can go in the Champions League this time, to reach the quarter-finals and beat Bayern, it is already a very remarkable achievement.
The Champions League has been overturned, and Emery has learned a bitter lesson. In the first leg of the 2016-17 Champions League quarterfinals, Emery coached The Paris 4-0 home win over Barca, and the second leg to Camp Nou, the tactics were too conservative, and barca was turned upside down 6:1.
The overall strength of the team is limited, the Foundation and experience in the Champions League have a huge gap with the opponent, this time, Emery's team to avoid being overturned, I am afraid it is more difficult than the last time, but it should not lose as badly as the last time.