In the early morning of April 17, Beijing time, in a match in the 32nd round of La Liga, Villarreal, who had just reached the top four of the Champions League, defeated Celta 2-1 and refused the occurrence of upset. Huang Qian's recent momentum is very strong, but even after getting 3 points in the morning, they still can't get the 6th place in the league.
As last season's Europa League winner, Emery's Villarreal did not fare well at the start of the season. At one point, Newcastle threw an olive branch to Emery, but the Spanish manager did not accept it, and he chose to quietly cultivate the team that made club history last season.
In the Champions League, the yellow submarine has become the biggest dark horse of the season. In the group stage, the Yellow Submarines performed well against Manchester United in 2 games, and finally pushed Atalanta to obtain a qualification. In the two consecutive rounds of knockout matches, Villarreal's consecutive victories over Juve and Bayern have exploded an absolute underdog.
Although the spring breeze in the Champions League is full of faces, back in La Liga, villarreal's situation is not optimistic. Facing relegation side Getafe in the early hours of the morning, Villarreal relied on goals from Moreno and Trigros early on to take a 2-0 lead. However, in the second half, Getafe's Jürna scored the ball and the score became 1-2, with suspense always surrounding the game.
Thanks to Emery's guidance, Villarreal still won 2-1 and scored an important three points for European qualification. However, in the standings, Villarreal's desire to reach the top 6 of the league is not an easy task.
After the early morning game, Villarreal had just 49 points, six points behind 6th-placed Real Sociedad. With six rounds left in the season, it's not easy to catch up with the six-point gap. In particular, it should be considered that Villarreal needs to be distracted by the Champions League games, but also has to face the top 4 teams such as Sevilla and Barcelona in the league schedule.
In the Champions League round of 4, Villarreal's opponent is Liverpool, who is currently gaining momentum. Liverpool are aiming to strike the quadruple this season, and they beat Manchester City in last night's game to lock in an FA Cup final. Whether or not liverpool can bring down such a strong one is a huge test left for Emery. Once Emery can beat the powerful Liverpool, I believe that many big clubs will throw an olive branch at him again.
Of course, if there is no way to win the Champions League, and the results of the league are also affected, then Villarreal's overall rating this season is difficult to have a high evaluation. The next 1 month or so will be a crucial moment to test Emery.