Villarreal players Dani Parejo, Etienne Capoue and Gerard Moreno were critical of Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann for failing to respect the Spanish outfit in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
The two sides drew 1-1 in Munich on Tuesday — a result which saw Villarreal progress to the semifinals with a 2-1 win on aggregate.
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Nagelsmann said in last week’s prematch news conference that he expected his team to get the job done in Villarreal ahead of the return leg at the Allianz Arena.
“I think their coach, who I don’t know personally, showed a lack of respect towards Villarreal and towards football by saying that he wanted to kill the tie in the opening leg,” Parejo said of Nagelsmann. “For us, that was a lack of respect and I think in the end, when you spit up at times it comes down and hits you.”
Six-time European champions Bayern were favourites going into the tie but lost 1-0 in Spain, their first away defeat in Europe’s elite competition since 2017.
Nagelsmann said on Monday that while his team had made “many mistakes” in the opening leg, Villarreal had “made the mistake of letting us live” by only taking a 1-0 advantage from the opening leg despite the numerous chances they had to extend their lead.
Capoue said he felt the Bayern coach “lacked humility” while his teammate Moreno said those comments inspired his side ahead of Tuesday’s return leg at the Allianz Arena.
“We played very well at home but they said we made a mistake by not finishing it off,” Moreno said. “Those comments served as motivation.
𝙉𝙤 𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙨 𝙣𝙞 𝙪𝙣𝙖 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙖 𝙤𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙙𝙖𝙙 𝙙𝙚 𝙜𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙧 𝙨𝙞 𝙣𝙤 𝙡𝙪𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙨.#UCL pic.twitter.com/9OvYCCdsYM
— Villarreal CF (@VillarrealCF) April 12, 2022
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