Good during the day and bad at night, stuck in the league and suffocated in the Champions League, Villarreal went to Dortmund yesterday with the advantage offered by the roads without crossroads. With a point gained in the first four days of the group stage, the Spanish team is certain that the last train towards the round of 32 of the Champions League passes through the old Westfalenstadion, probably the hottest pitch in Europe, scene today (9.00pm, Movistar) of a match with irrevocable consequences. A defeat would mean Villarreal’s arithmetic elimination. A draw would give them hope of reaching the 11 points, which last year served as a screening bar. They will have three more rounds of the championship left, assuming they manage to defeat Ajax, Copenhagen and Leverkusen, something that amounts to a radical change of pace.
“The League is the League,” replied Marcelino. The Villarreal coach didn’t need further explanations when, after the defeat against Manchester City a month ago, someone asked him why his team was shining in the league and suffering in the Champions League. Things haven’t changed since then. Third in the national championship, three points behind the leaders, the Castellón team is suffering in the top category of continental football, where they have not won a single match, victim, among other factors, of what the coach considers an increasingly high competitive level. Villarreal’s performance is the same. The power of the opponents changes, in a competition that is increasingly inhospitable for League members, accustomed to playing in a tournament that in recent years has become poorer than the major local European competitions, especially the Premier League.
Georges Mikautadze symbolizes the adventures of a Villarreal forced to sell to balance the budget and rebuild year after year with inexperienced players. Alone in front of the goal line, after beating David Luiz in the 5th minute of the match against Pafos on the final day of the Champions League, Mikautadze pushed an aerial ball. The ball, a headed pass from Moleiro, went past the Georgian striker, the most expensive signing in the club’s history, who paid 30 million euros to Lyon this summer. Sitting on the bench, Marcelino observed the scene with a stone face. His somber gesture reflected a premonition of what was to come: for an hour his players took no more shots on goal. Pafos took the lead definitively (1-0) and in the 56th minute Mikautadze was replaced by Oluwaseyi.
Called upon to replace the athletic Thierno Barry, the striker who scored 11 league goals last season and moved to Everton, the young Mikautadze described a downward trajectory in Europe. He played 90 minutes against Tottenham, 76 against Juve, 66 against City and 56 against Pafos. Against Espanyol, in the following match, he wasn’t even called up. He was no longer a starter. Perhaps alarmed by his somewhat contemplative attitude, Marcelino reminds him that being the star of the transfer market does not guarantee him a job.
“Football punishes you if you are not humble,” the coach said after the Cyprus disaster; “Humility is a very important factor, it helps you show your virtues, hide your flaws and have ambitions. If we play like we did against Pafos it will be impossible to qualify for the next round.”
Dortmund waits immersed in the sporting and institutional crisis. Hans-Joachim Watzke, its historic CEO, left office last Sunday in a climate of social disapproval. Burdened by a squad devoid of the talent of other eras, the team, fourth in the Bundesliga, does not play anything very recognisable, not even under the very simple regime of Kovacs, one of the least imaginative coaches to have passed through Dortmund in this century. Two draws and a defeat in the last three matches hardly reflect the severity of the German team’s problems.
