Date: Wednesday, September 29 2021
Kickoff Time: 2000 Hrs BST
Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester
Champions League Form Guide
Manchester United: L
Villarreal: D
Previous Meetings in the Champions League
Villarreal 0—0 Manchester United
Manchester United 0—0 Villarreal
Manchester United 0—0 Villarreal
Villarreal 0—0 Manchester United
All-Time Record in the Champions League
Manchester United wins: 0
Villarreal wins: 0
Draws: 4
Pre-Match Pressers
Ole Gunnar Solskjær
Unai Emery
Team News
Manchester United
Marcus Rashford, Amad Diallo, Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka ruled out. Luke Shaw doubtful.
Villarreal
Samuel Chukwueze, Gerard Moreno, Dani Raba, Yeremi Pino and Francis Coquelin ruled out. Juan Foyth doubtful.
Know the opposition
Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or just Villarreal, and nicknamed El Submarí Groguet or El Submarino Amarillo (The Yellow Submarine), is a Spanish professional football club based in Villarreal that plays in La Liga. Villarreal was founded as Club Deportivo Villarreal on 10 March 1923 to promote all sports (and especially Football). The stadium was rented for 60 pesetas a month and ticket prices were set at half a peseta for men and a quarter of a peseta for children. Women were granted free admission. On 21 October of that year, Villarreal played their first game ever, against CD Castellón, a modern rival of the club.
Villarreal entered regional competitions within the Spanish football pyramid from 1929 to 1930 onwards. The 1934–35 season saw the team lose to Cartagena when a win would have seen them promoted to the nationwide Second Division. The following season saw Villarreal win the First Division of the region before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. When the war finished in 1939, the club played again in the Second Division of the region. However, CD Villarreal was dissolved in the early 1940s, and in 1942, CA Foghetecaz, an acronym for the club's founders (Font, Gil, Herrero, Teuler, Catalá and Zaragoza), was one of several clubs established in its place. In 1946, the new club joined the Valencian Football Federation and renamed itself as CAF Villarreal, where the F stood for Foghetecaz. The name changed again to the current Villarreal CF in 1954, with a badge similar to the present one.
The club has spent much of its history in the lower divisions of Spanish football, and only made their La Liga debut in 1998. In the 21st century, Villarreal gained some league stability following the rise to prominence of Juan Román Riquelme, Marcos Senna, Juan Pablo Sorín and Diego Forlán (the only Villarreal player to win the Pichichi and European Golden Shoe titles) under Chilean coach Manuel Pellegrini. The club made its first appearance in the UEFA Champions League in 2005 and reached the semi-finals of the competition. The club achieved its best league finish in the 2007/08 campaign, runners-up behind leaders Real Madrid, and made further UEFA Champions League appearances while also appearing in the UEFA Cup and boasting the talents of Bruno Soriano, Diego Godín, Santi Cazorla, Joan Capdevila, Giuseppe Rossi and Joseba Llorente; but sustained relegation in 2012, before quickly rebounding, becoming a stable top division club and and going on to achieve three top-six finishes under Marcelino García Toral. By 2021, under the leadership of Unai Emery, the team reached their first Europa League final.
Villarreal has supported a long rivalry with CD Castellón for geographical reasons, since both are from the province of Castellón; this clash is called the Derbi de La Plana. They also rival Valencia, since the two had been the most competitive teams of the Valencian Community; this clash is called the Derbi de la Comunitat. Villarreal's mascot is called Groguet (coming from the word ‘groc’ which means yellow in Valencian). They play their home games at the Estadio de la Cerámica, formerly and informally called El Madrigal, and originally called Campo de Villarreal.
Referee
Felix Zwayer.
