Villarreal FC
Spanish UEFA Europa League stalwarts Villarreal, in their first major European final defeated 2017 champions Manchester United in the Polish seaport of Gdańsk.
All the players scored their penalties expect for Man U goalkeeper David de Gea who lost his penalty..
- The Spanish side are led by head coach Unai Emery, who steered Sevilla to a hat-trick of UEFA Europa League successes from 2013/14 to 2015/16 as well as taking Arsenal to the 2018/19 final, while his counterpart Ole Gunnar Solskjær is looking to win his first continental trophy as a manager – and his first silverware in two and a half years as the United boss.
- Villarreal cruised to first place in UEFA Europa League Group I ahead of Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Sivasspor and Qarabağ to reach the round of 32 for the eighth time before comfortably disposing of UEFA Champions League group stage participants Salzburg (2-0 a, 2-1 h) and Dynamo Kyiv (2-0 a, 2-0 h). They also won both quarter-final matches against Dinamo Zagreb (1-0 a, 2-1 h) and then knocked out United’s Premier League rivals – and Emery’s former employers – Arsenal in the semi-final (2-1 h, 0-0 a). Villarreal are undefeated in Europe in 2020/21 with 11 wins and two draws.
- Solskjær’s team competed in the UEFA Champions League during the autumn, defeats in their final two Group H fixtures leaving them in third place on nine points behind Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig. They have subsequently come through four UEFA Europa League ties, eliminating two Spanish clubs, Real Sociedad in the round of 32 (4-0 a, 0-0 h) and Granada in the quarter-finals (2-0 a, 2-0 h), as well as two from Italy – AC Milan in the round of 16 (1-1 h, 1-0 a) and Roma in the semi-finals (6-2 h, 2-3 a), the second-leg defeat in Rome ending their unbeaten run in this season’s competition.
- Villarreal and Manchester United have met in four previous European matches – on each occasion in the UEFA Champions League group stage – and every one ended in a goalless draw.
- The first encounter in September 2005, which marked Villarreal’s debut in the UEFA Champions League proper, was notable for the sending-off of visiting United striker Wayne Rooney. Another stalemate at Old Trafford two months later turned out to be costly for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side as they would ultimately finish bottom of the group, ending a run of nine successive qualifications for the knockout phase, whereas Manuel Pellegrini’s debutants finished top – despite scoring just three goals – and went on to reach the semi-finals, where they were beaten by Arsenal.
- Ferguson and Pellegrini were both still in charge as the clubs played out two further 0-0 draws three years later, the first at Old Trafford, where United began the defence of the trophy, the second at El Madrigal, where the outcome ensured both teams qualified for the next stage. Villarreal went on to reach the quarter-finals, losing again to Arsenal, while United made it all the way to another final only to lose 2-0 to another Spanish side, Barcelona, in Rome.
Villarreal’s overall record against English clubs is W5 D7 L5. This is their first encounter at a neutral venue.
United have won only 16 of their 61 UEFA matches against Spanish opposition (D23 L22), though they are unbeaten in all four this spring (W3 D1), scoring eight goals and conceding none. However, their last three European campaigns have all been terminated by Liga opposition – by Sevilla in both the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League round of 16 (0-0 a, 1-2 h) and last season’s one-off UEFA Europa League semi-final in Cologne (1-2), and by Barcelona in the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League quarter-final (0-1 h, 0-3 a).
