Villarreal has turned the first meeting with Arsenal in the semi-final of the Europa League into a win. Unai Emery’s team won 2-1 in Estadio de la Cerámica against the trainer’s old employer. It was a spectacular game in which both teams received a red card. The return match awaits in London next week.
Arsenal had to make do without Alexandre Lacazette, who is suffering from a hamstring injury, and without the equally injured Kieran Tierney. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was sidelined for several weeks after being hospitalized with malaria and started on the couch. Compared to Saturday’s game with Everton (0-1 defeat), trainer Mikel Arteta made one change: Martin Ödegaard replaced Eddie Nketiah in the starting line-up. At Villarreal, goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli was preferred over Sergio Asenjo and Alfonso Pedraza replaced Alberto Moreno in left back position.
Villarreal hoped to take revenge for the Champions League eliminations against Arsenal in 2006 (semi-final) and 2009 (quarter-final). El Submarino Amarillo got off to a great start, as Manuel Trigueros opened the score in the fifth minute. Juan Foyth was allowed to make the necessary meters at the half of Arsenal and found Samuel Chukwueze, who entered the penalty area from the right flank. He tried to get between Dani Ceballos and Granit Xhaka and via Ceballos’s leg the ball landed at the feet of Trigueros, who found the left corner with a low, diagonal swipe.
The second attempt also resulted in a goal for Villarreal. After half an hour, Gerard Moreno got too much space from Arsenal to extend the ball with the head after a corner. He enabled Raúl Albiol to finish at the far post: 2-0. Not much later, Arsenal appeared to receive a penalty after a foul by Foyth on Nicolas Pépé, but the attacker had the ball taken into the penalty area by hand and so the penalty was canceled. Twelve minutes after the break, Arsenal also had to continue with ten men. Dani Ceballos, who played a weak game and had already received yellow in the first half, stood on Dani Parejo’s foot and received his second yellow print.
Villarreal was given a chance through Chukwueze to exploit the numerical superiority, but did not. Subsequently, the match tilted. In the eyes of referee Artur Soares Dias, Bukayo Saka went over the leg at Trigueros in the sixteen-meter area, after which Pépé shot a penalty kick hard, low and through the middle. A few minutes later, Villarreal also had to continue with ten men, when a foul by Étienne Capoue led to his second yellow card. The game of both teams remained, as was the case throughout the game, afterwards sloppy. There were no big chances for the five-minute injury time, but in minute 94, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ran into goalkeeper Rulli from a tricky angle.