Conference League
In the UEFA Conference League away at Villarreal on Thursday (9:00 p.m.), Wiener Austria will face the toughest task in Group C in terms of paper form. “Submarino Amarillo” has recently become the best-known Spanish club outside of Real and Atletico Madrid and FC Barcelona. “There is no better opponent in the Conference League,” said Austria’s Dominik Fitz. The “Yellow Submarine” has only sailed from victory to victory at half speed.
In the 4-3 win at home against Lech Poznan and 2-1 away against Hapoel Be’er Scheva, coach Unai Emery started with a B-set. Starting with goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen up to the storm, there were almost exclusively substitute players on the field. Veteran Raul Albiol, on the other hand, didn’t play a minute, game designer Dani Parejo was only substituted half an hour before the end of both games. Whenever the games were on the brink, however, Emery upped the ante.
Spain team player Gerard Moreno will be missing against Austria fix. The star attacker is suffering from a muscle injury and will not be in the second leg in Vienna next week. Moreno’s absence shouldn’t reassure Austria too much. The recently not fully fit Nigerian Samuel Chukwueze, the Argentinian international Giovani Lo Celso or the 19-year-old Yeremi Pino, who was already in Spain’s senior team, also knew how to please at the top class level.
Villarreal has already made acquaintance with Austria’s representatives several times. Salzburg was the opponent in 2009 (Europa League group), 2015 and 2021 (each Europa League round of 16), Rapid 2015 and 2018 (each Europa League group). From a red-white-red perspective, there were three wins and a draw in a total of ten games. In knockout stages, Villarreal were twice winners against Austrian clubs.
The star is the coach
The man with the greatest charisma is on the sidelines anyway. Coach Emery is best known for his successes with Sevilla FC. From 2014 to 2016, the Andalusians won the UEFA Cup under the Basque. With Villarreal, Emery won the Europa League in 2021 in his first season after returning to Spain. No coach has won the second most important European club competition more often. The final victory came against Manchester United.
It may have been a certain satisfaction for the now 50-year-old after his engagement in the Premier League ended prematurely. As Arsenal manager, Emery had to leave in 2018 after a total of 17 months. Before that, the perfectionist managed the star squad of Paris Saint-Germain (2016 to 2018). His undoing was missing out on Champions League honors in the French capital. If the stations in France and England ended with a certain reputational damage, the collar size of a club like Villarreal should be tailor-made for Emery.
Steady rise of an outsider
The club lives out the image of the outsider with ambitions. In 2006, the team from the small town near Valencia with 50,000 inhabitants was already in the semi-finals of the Champions League, two years later they finished runners-up behind Real. In 2012 it went down to the second division, a year later Villarreal was first class again. The nickname supposedly goes back to 1967, when the Beatles classic “Yellow Submarine” also left its mark in Villarreal and was often used in reference to the yellow jerseys.
Before the quarter-finals of the latest edition of the Champions League, there was only talk in Munich of a possible semi-final against Liverpool, but the rebellious Spaniards pulled the offensive of FC Bayern the tooth. Liverpool then deservedly prevailed. Villarreal is currently eighth in the Spanish league. There was a disappointing 0-0 draw at Cadiz at the weekend, with the visitors missing a few chances.
