It was not so long ago – only 16 years, in fact – that Villarreal had never even qualified for a European competition, let alone won one.
That changed in a rainy Gdansk on Wednesday night, Unai Emery’s war of attrition perfectly articulated to win 11-10 on penalties.
The triumph of the underdog is always unexpected, a town of 50,000 and a team who only traversed Spain’s top flight for the first time in 1998, overcoming the might of Manchester United.
This is what Emery does in finals, the former Arsenal manager surpassing Giovanni Trapattoni as the competition’s most successful manager of all time (with four wins to Trapattoni’s three and Jose Mourinho’s two).
Whisper it quietly in the corridors of the Premier League and particularly of the so-called Big Six, but it is also what Spanish teams tend to do in finals. There is a telling stat doing the rounds: In the last 20 years, there have been 16 occasions when one of La Liga‘s representatives has faced a non-Spanish opponent. They have won all 16.
That is not to say Villarreal’s night of glory should have been predicted, however, and the tears etched on the faces of Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford hinted that United did not see it coming.
Fernandes may have inadvertently played his part, though, with the skipper on the night appearing to win the toss for the shootout and allowing Emery’s side to kick first.
Bruno letting Villarreal take first ???? pic.twitter.com/yQzUjN8tyd
— James John (@JamesJohn2427) May 27, 2021
Superstition alone would tell you that such a gesture is a bad idea, but there is evidence to back it up too. Research from the London School of Economics found that teams who shoot first will win a penalty shootout 60 per cent of the time. Indeed, “according to interviews with more than 200 coaches, the advantage of shooting first is that it places additional pressure on the following team, leading to errors and a generally lower success rate”.
Quite why Fernandes, who admittedly converted his own effort, seemed unaware of that fact is a matter of regret for United, who have now lost six of their last seven shootouts in all competitions.
The Portuguese was expected to be the Red Devils’ key man, but only belatedly was it realised that, in Emery, Villarreal boasted a secret weapon to snuff him out.
“Bruno was absolutely nullified and he was closed down at all times,” Rio Ferdinand said in the BT Sport studio. “And the space for people like Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford and Edinson Cavani to get behind and exploit that space – with their pace and movement and anticipation – was never there today.
“You have to give credit to Unai Emery today because he got them tactics spot on.”
Paul Scholes added: “[Etienne] Capoue especially was the one, [Francis] Coquelin when he came on got right against him. Don’t let [Fernandes] get his head up because he will destroy you. And tonight I don’t really remember him having an effect on the game.”
Yet even when these minnows had taken United to 120 minutes and, aside from conceding to Edinson Cavani, had thwarted United’s efforts, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side did not seem to have done their homework. David de Gea did not save a single penalty, a far greater crime than the spot-kick he missed. That could probably have been foreseen, not least by Dean Henderson on the bench with his record of eight saves from 19 penalties he has faced in his career.
Perhaps it spoke of a sense of complacency that has long pervaded English football, but which always becomes louder in campaigns bearing an all-English Champions League final. Never mind not taking Villarreal seriously, the whole Spanish top tier was derided before kick-off.
“You’re playing Villarreal here,” Scholes told BT Sport. “You’re playing a team that finished 7th in a really poor La Liga. Think of Real Madrid and Barcelona, how bad have they been? Manchester United should win this game comfortably.”
They should indeed have won it comfortably, but Scholes was disappointed in his prediction that “they’ll get one goal and two or three will come”. Not quite Amanda Holden levels of patriotic hubris, but once again an English side paid the price.
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