“I said ‘Where is Villarreal?’I was told it was in the sun, just there, next to Valencia. So I said ‘alright, let’s go’” explains Villarreal midfielder Etienne Capoue to AFP, how did he ‘learned’ about his potential new club after Watford. The French international soon left rainy England and exchanged it for the sunny Spain. And not only that, he exchanged relegation battle for trophies, as he switched over to Villarreal in January 2021 and immediately won the Europa League in May, against Manchester United on penalties, with a man of the match reward.Five things you might not know about Unai EmerySo, to come to the Champions League semifinal a year later is not so shocking to the Frenchman, although it wasn’t really what he was hoping for.“Winning the Champions League? We never had the audacity to say we could win the Champions League. We’re the smallest club in the semi-finals, we were the smallest club in the quarter-finals. We’re just making our merry way. And we have nothing to lose” Capoue tells AFP.When you spit up, it will come back at you – Nagelsmann’s statement fired up the underdogsAnd he is right. By knocking out multiply Champions League winners Bayern Munich out of the competition in the quarter-finals, they already turned attention to themselves, but now they are facing an even bigger task – Liverpool at Enfield. While playing for Watford, Capoue got familiar with the atmosphere at Enfield. He has played four times there, and lost by an aggregate score of 18-1.“Anfield is hell, you have to say it how it is. It’s hell. It’s the worst stadium I’ve been to in England. Whether it’s the atmosphere, the way they play… For 90 minutes, you live in hell. They have this ability to transcend themselves, to cause you nothing but problems, all the time, in any part of the field. They never stop, they rush you all the time, they only want to score goals, and even when they score, they carry on. They want to knock you out. They don’t care what or who is in front of them. They just want to kill everyone and that’s it” explains Capoue. 💛 #UCL 💛 pic.twitter.com/YvYsteeVcU— Villarreal CF English (@VillarrealCFen) April 25, 2022 And his coach is also very familiar with the works of Liverpool, having managed Arsenal since Arsene Wenger left the club. But still, Emery is very detailed and still watches a lot of games from his opponents, which he turns into a very long video sessions for his players.“I don’t watch football at all so I don’t mind. If the others watch football at home and then when they come in they have to watch more football videos, maybe that annoys them. It doesn’t bother me because I know it’s not for fun, it’s work. He does it to give you as much information as possible and in the end, all these situations, in matches, they happen. At the end of the match, you say to yourself, ‘you know what, the coach, he is incredibly smart’. That happens to me all the time” explains CapoueCopa del Rey glory! The green and whites of Seville get their hands on the national cupVillarreal is a tiny town but a big club, the Europa League champions, a team owned by a supermarket tycoon, who have finished only one of the last eight seasons outside La Liga’s top seven.“We don’t care, we know we’re underdogs. Nobody will say we’re favourites because we’re not. Who are the other teams? What else can we say about them? It’s not offending anyone to say there are 50,000 people here and in their stadiums alone, they have 70,000 seats. We don’t mind, it’s the truth” says Capoue and finishes by saying that his team is ‘solid’, playing for ‘the love of football’.UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUESemi-finalsTuesday22:00: (1.50) Man.City (4.50) Real Madrid (7.25)Wednesday22:00: (1.30) Liverpool (6.00) Villareal (11.0)***odds are subject to change***
