Unai Emery deserves praise after successfully bringing Villareal to the semifinals

DBasia.news – The 2021-2022 Champions League has entered the semifinal phase. Among the four teams, Villarreal was the dark horse. Their presence in the top four was unexpected.

Understandably, after losing twice to Manchester United in the group stage but being able to qualify as runners-up, Villarreal faced two strong and traditional teams in Europe in the knockout phase, namely Juventus and Bayern Munich.

Villarreal were unseeded against those two teams but what happened? Juventus and Bayern were eliminated by a team nicknamed The Yellow Submarine. The journey to win the Europa League last season continues.

Now in the semifinals Villarreal will face Liverpool, a team who are in good momentum and are fighting for the quadruple (four) titles after winning the League Cup. Liverpool are clearly a different opponent to Juventus and Bayern.

Villarreal are again unseeded and will play without a burden (nothing to lose). Despite winning or losing, Villarreal’s journey deserves appreciation, especially the coach, Unai Emery.

The 50-year-old coach has only been coaching Villarreal for two years and he won the Europa League title. A familiar achievement for him who has won the Europa League with a total of four titles (three won with Sevilla).

Emery’s performance with Sevilla was what made PSG sign him in 2016. But after that Emery’s career did not go as well as with Sevilla. For two years Emery coached PSG and coached Arsenal for a year.

Despite winning the trophy at PSG, the management was never satisfied until the team won the Champions League. His reputation has dwindled and Emery isn’t talked about much, but the fact is that at the moment he deserves to be in the ranks of one of the top coaches in Europe.

Emery brought Villarreal through to the semifinals and through the obstacles of Juventus and Bayern. The public should appreciate Emery’s performance.

“In many places,” Villarreal midfielder, Francis Coquelin told The Guardian when asked if clubs weren’t patient enough with Emery.

“Look at Paris Saint-Germain, look what they’re doing now and it’s no better than when he was there.”

“Unfortunately, football lacks patience. For Unai, I think the language barrier is challenging.”

“He needs to communicate his message to his players. He does it easily here, it’s more difficult at PSG and Arsenal. He has great credit here, and deserves it.”

Even Emery’s colleague, Jurgen Klopp, sees him as a world class coach with his details on every situation in the game.

“I have a lot of respect for Unai Emery and Villarreal before because I saw the game but only with one eye,” Klopp said praising Emery.

“Meanwhile, I (have) watched them properly and wow, impressive!”

“Unai is definitely a detail-obsessed manager who prepares for all the different situations in the game and that’s what his team do.”

“It’s a great, different way to build and press and react. Very impressive.”

“Unai is a world-class coach and does a great job there. The good thing is that we are not involved in all the games,” Klopp explained.