MADRID, 14 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Villarreal faces this Thursday (9:00 p.m.) their second game of the Conference League group stage, the first away, in which they will have to visit Israeli Hapoel Beer Sheva in what will be a golden opportunity to win and clarify the panorama in order to be first in the group.
Unai Emery’s men won by suffering more than necessary on the first day against Lech Poznan in a crazy match where they started losing, came back to 3-1, lost the lead again, and ended up winning 4-3 thanks to a volley from Coquelin at the last minute.
This slap now has to serve the yellow team to know that the Conference League is not going to be a walk despite Villarreal being a team that has just played the semifinals of the Champions League last season. Unai Emery’s come in addition to his first defeat of the season, the one suffered against Betis in the league, so it remains to be seen how he reacts in Europe.
Villarreal, whose clear objective is to be first in the group, aspires to achieve a second victory that will put land in between with the rest of their rivals, after a first day in which they were the only team to add three.
The visit to Israel is not going to be a bed of roses for Villarreal, who have a long list of casualties to which Manu Trigueros and Gerard Moreno have joined. The former left the match against Lech Poznan injured and the latter from the match against Betis, joining Pepe Reina, Raúl Albiol, Juan Foyth, Alberto Moreno and Giovani Lo Celso as absentees.
The good news is that Arnaut Danjuma could return, who has entered the squad list and, although he is not expected to start, he could have minutes. This is something very important for Unai Emery, because last season he was one of the most important players for Villarreal and this season he still hasn’t made his debut after getting injured in preseason.
The rival will be Hapoel Beer Sheva, a team from the Israeli city of Beersheva and currently in sixth place in their league, where they have won two games and lost two others. To play the Conference League, the team needed to overcome three previous rounds after qualifying as runner-up to Israel.
In their debut in the competition, they did not go beyond a goalless draw on their visit to Austria Vienna in a game where they managed to save a meritorious point despite not getting to finish off the goal throughout the match.