A decade ago, Unai Emery was talking about his dream of one day winning the Champions League trophy. At home, the Spaniard was the coach of Valencia, a team that was in the group stage, a year after reaching the 1/8 finals under Emery's leadership.
Emery failed to advance from the group stage like a year ago, so his biggest success in the Champions League remains the 1/8 final. He did not achieve more with the other clubs he led after Valencia, such as Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal.
Now Emery is at Villarreal. This team has been offered another opportunity. The small Spanish team hosts Juventus in the first leg of the last 1 of the Champions League on Tuesday night. This match, which starts at 8:21, Villarreal plays at home.
"You can't play in the Champions League every year, so you have to enjoy it when you get the chance to play," Emery said at Monday's press conference. "You have to give everything from yourself at this stage. We are not favorites, but we have shown that we can beat teams of Juventus' level. We have shown that we deserve to be where we are now."
For the first time in the last 13 years, Villarreal is appearing in the 1/8 finals. It is considered an outsider in front of Juventus, a team that five years ago was in the finals, but that in the last two editions has not managed to qualify for the quarterfinals of this competition.
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"Nothing has been decided yet and is not certain. Villarreal are having a good time, as are we. Villarreal is a very technical team with a great coach. It will be a tactical match, in which we must pay attention to the details and have patience", said the coach of Juventus, Massimiliano Allegri.
This will be Emery's fourth attempt to reach the quarter-finals, after failing with Valencia in 2011 and twice with PSG in 2017 and 2018. In his three other Champions League appearances, Emery has failed to progress beyond group stage – with Valencia (2011/12), Spartak Moscow (2012/13) and Sevilla (2015/16). He did not reach the group stage with Villarreal last season, nor with Arsenal the two previous years.
Emery's European success has come in UEFA's second-tier competition, the Europa League. He has won the Europa League trophy four times, three times with Sevilla and once with Villarreal. While with Arsenal, he was defeated in the 2019 final.
"I always like to try to learn from others, but I never lose my core," Emery said. "There are many secrets to being successful and mine is to always work hard."
The Spaniard was unable to thrive at PSG and also failed to live up to expectations at Arsenal, where he was often mocked for his poor English as he endured the difficult task of succeeding manager Arsene Wenger.
Emery guided Villarreal to the knockout stages from a group that included Manchester United, Atalanta and Young Boys, while Allegri's Juventus progressed from a group with Malmo, Zenit and Chelsea.
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"The chances of going to the quarter-finals against a team like Villarreal are 50 to 50. Villarreal will also have the support of the public and we must give everything from ourselves for a positive result, which will not be easy", added the coach of To you, Allegri.
Villarreal, 2006 Champions League semi-finalists, are unbeaten in their last four games in all competitions. Striker Arnaut Danjuma has returned to the team after being sidelined for almost two months due to injury. The Dutchman scored a "hat-trick" last weekend in the championship victory 4:1 against Granada.
Juventus, who were eliminated in the 1/8 finals by Lyon and Porto in the last two editions, enters this match after two draws in Serie A and will be without striker Paulo Dybala and defender Giorgio Chiellini.
The match between Chelsea and Lille also takes place on Tuesday night. In the current champion of France, Lille, the representative of Kosovo, Edon Zhegrova, has been included in the team for this match.
"We're competitors so we're not going there just to be Chelsea's sparring partner, that's for sure," Lillet coach Jocelyn Gourvennec said. "Chelsea is a great team, but there are always surprises in European games. And we want to be the ones who make surprises, as we have been since the beginning of this season in the Champions League".
Tuesday (21:00)
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Villarreal - Juventus
Chelsea - Lille
