Spain’s Villarreal blew a surprise of the caliber and qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions League, following drawing 1-1 with its host Bayern Munich on Tuesday evening (12 April 2022) in the second leg of the quarter-finals.
The first leg ended with Villarreal winning 1-0 at home, thus the Spanish team won with a total score of 2/1 and qualified for the semi-finals at the expense of Bayern Munich, who won the European title six times.
Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring for Bayern Munich in the 52nd minute at the Allianz Arena, then came the equalizer for Villarreal in the 88th minute through Nigerian substitute Samuel Chukwueze.
Despite his absence from his best level, Bayern Munich was the best team throughout the two halves of the match in terms of possession and offensive pressure, but he missed many scoring opportunities to pay the price in the end.
As for Villarreal, it intensified its focus on defensive insurance for most of the match and seemed unable to find solutions to score the net for long periods, but managed to snatch the decisive equalizer just two minutes before the end, through Shukwezi, who was pushed by coach Unai Emery from the bench in 84th minute.
Villarreal is waiting in the semi-finals for the winner of the match between Liverpool and Benfica, following the English club’s 3-1 victory in the first leg in Lisbon. The match will be decided by the return match on Wednesday.
S.M./A.A.A. (DPA, Archyde.com)
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