Champions League group stage recap: Villarreal do enough
Friday, January 14, 2022
Article summary
Never flamboyant but usually effective, the UEFA Europa League holders made it to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 largely unscathed.
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Despite some impressive displays in the group stage, it took a Matchday 6 victory to take Unai Emery's Villarreal into the UEFA Champions League round of 16, with results not quite reflecting the Yellow Submarine's performance level.
Campaign so far
Group F runners-up: W3 D1 L2 F12 A9
Top scorer: Arnaut Danjuma (4)
14/09: Villarreal 2-2 Atalanta (Trigueros 39, Danjuma 73; Freuler 6, Gosens 83)
29/09: Manchester United 2-1 Villarreal (Alex Telles 60, Ronaldo 90+5; Alcácer 53)
20/10: Young Boys 1-4 Villarreal (Elia 77; Pino 6, Gerard Moreno 16, Moreno 88, Chukwueze 90+2)
02/11: Villarreal 2-0 Young Boys (Capoue 36, Danjuma 89)
23/11: Villarreal 0-2 Manchester United (Ronaldo 78, Sancho 90)
09/12: Atalanta 2-3 Villarreal (Malinovskyi 71, Zapata 80; Danjuma 3 51, Capoue 42)
Campaign in ten words: Lack of a finisher nearly cost them a knockout place.
UEFA.com reporter's view
The Yellow Submarine played some excellent football during the group stage, in particular dominating Manchester United for long periods at Old Trafford. Gerard Moreno's injury issues meant that they lacked a natural goalscorer, though, and while they got the job done, it would have been a lot easier with a sharper cutting edge.
What we've learned
Last season's UEFA Europa League winners, Villarreal have proved themselves to be worthy of a place at this level but need to be a bit more clinical in both boxes if they are to keep forging on, with slack defending and profligate finishing having marred some good group stage showings.
Fantasy star performers
Arnaut Danjuma - 44 points
Étienne Capoue – 36 points
Dani Parejo – 27 points
Squad changes
In: Serge Aurier, Giovani Lo Celso, José Manuel Cabrera López*, Gregorio Medina*
Out: Nikita Iosifov, Daniel Raba
*Registered to List B.
Clubs could register a maximum of three new eligible players prior to the knockout stage. Since 2018/19, it no longer matters whether those players have already played in the competition for another club, even for another club still in the competition.
Key stats
• Just under half of the city of Villarreal's 52,000 inhabitants can fit inside their 23,500-seater stadium.
• Signed from Bournemouth in summer 2021, Nigerian-born Dutch forward Danjuma scored four goals in his first Champions League group stage with Villarreal.
• The Yellow Submarine conceded eight of their nine group stage goals after half-time.
