UEFA Champions League: Villarreal stun Bayern Munich 1-0 in first leg of quarterfinal clash

The Europa League holders Villarreal suffocated Julian Nagelsmann’s Bayern Munich team, who struggled to find their touch in the final third, and were a constant menace to keeper Manuel Neuer on the counter.

Villarreal stunned six times European Cup winners Bayern Munich with a deserved 1-0 win after creating a hatful of chances in a frantic Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday (April 6). In the end Nigerian-born Dutch forward Arnaut Danjuma’s eighth minute strike gave Unai Emery’s side a slender lead for the second leg at the Allianz Arena in Munich next Tuesday.

Villarreal took the game to Bayern and should probably have won by a larger margin given their clear opportunities. The Europa League holders suffocated Julian Nagelsmann’s team, who struggled to find their touch in the final third, and were a constant menace to keeper Manuel Neuer on the counter.

Villarreal had a Francis Coquelin effort chalked off by VAR for offside while Gerard Moreno almost scored twice – first with a long-range strike that hit the post and later trying to lob Neuer with an effort from inside his own half that went wide. Danjuma and Alfonso Pedraza wasted two clear chances in the last few minutes, missing the target from inside the area.

“Our team is very hungry and humble,” Man-of-the-Match Giovani Lo Celso told Movistar Plus. “But we faced one of the best teams in the world and we go out with the sensation that we should have scored several more goals.

“We knew that we needed to shorten the field for them – they are a team that can’t have spaces to work the ball. We played our game, we are a team that always try to be the protagonist and we had a lot of opportunities to win by a bigger margin.”