Doubt Villarreal at your own peril. First it was Juventus that learned that difficult lesson, now it’s Bayern Munich.
After losing its 1–0 first-leg aggregate lead on a goal by Robert Lewandowski, Villarreal struck back, with Samuel Chukwueze’s finish on an 88th-minute counterattack stunning the German power and securing an unlikely 2–1 aggregate triumph. Villarreal withstood a barrage of chances and picked its spots wisely, and it moves onto the semifinals, where it’ll face Liverpool unless Benfica can overturn a 3–1 aggregate deficit at Anfield on Wednesday.
It looked like Bayern would have enough, with Lewandowski delivering the aggregate equalizer seven minutes into the second half.
The German power surprisingly lost the first leg of its Champions League quarterfinal vs. Villarreal in Spain on Arnaut Danjuma’s goal, and perhaps even more surprisingly was held scoreless in the first half of the second leg at home. That changed soon after the break, though.
Lewandowski scored the 86th Champions League goal of his career (69 of which have come for Bayern) in the 52nd minute, rolling in a shot from the edge of the box to finally break through for the hosts and make it 1-1 on aggregate.
Bayern had dominated the chances in the first half and outshot Villarreal 7-1, but had nothing to show for it. Jamal Musiala had come close on a point-blank header prior to the half-hour mark, but Villarreal goalkeeper Rulli held his ground and made the save.
In all, Bayern outshot Villarreal 23-4 and outpossessed the visitor 68%-32% as part of a one-sided statistical performance. Nevertheless, it’s Unai Emery’s side going through, with Chukwueze’s winner sealing the deal on another famous night for the Yellow Submarine, last season’s Europa League champion.
It will be Villarreal’s second appearance in the Champions League semifinals and first since 2005-06, when it bowed out to Arsenal.
