Manchester United will look to avenge their loss and try to bounce back with a victory when they face last year Europa League Villarreal in the second round of the UEFA Champions League 2021/22.
Manchester United lost their first game of the campaign against Swiss side Young Boys. The Reds Devils took the lead in the first half but were reduced to 10-men after Wan-Bissaka was red-carded in the 35th minute of the match. Young Boys scored two second-half goals and earned a victory over their English opponents.
After getting reduced to ten men, the Red Devils were defending for most periods in the match. Manchester United players contested 83 defensive duels and won 71% of the duels contested by the team. Maguire & Co. were also strong aerially winning 65% of their aerial duels.
Manchester United biggest concern in the match was scoring goals. Ronaldo was the only player who had attempts towards the opposition goal. The xG timeline was just limited to the first half for the Red Devils. The xT timeline graph is high before the red card incident, after that, it was also very low in the second half.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s last match for Manchester United before transfer to Real Madrid was the UCL 2008/09 final. He started for the Red Devils and was the goalscorer for his side. Bruno Fernandes assisted his countryman for the goal.
When looking at the above chart, the general rule is that the longer the bar the better the performance – you can see the league average in the middle and the % is the percentile rank the player is in.
Luke Shaw was the top performer in Manchester United defence. He contested four aerial duels and had a 100% win rate. The left-back also won the same amount of loose ball duels. Other than duels, the English international player intercepted 11 opponent passes.
Villareal played out a 2-2 draw against Atalanta in their first match. The Yellow Submarines also finished the match with 10-men, after Francis Coquelin received his second yellow card in the 84th minute of the match.
Villarreal players attempted 14 shots towards the opposition goal. The team scored two goals and five shots were saved by the opposition goalkeeper. 12 shots were attempted from inside the opposition box and the xG rate was more than two for the Spanish club. Most of the attacks started from the left and ended up by attempting a shot from that side only.
The Yellow Submarines offensive duels win ratio was just 27% in the match. The defensive, loose ball and aerial duels win percentage was also less than 50 for the team.
Villarreal’s new signing, Danjuma scored on his return to Champions League football after coming off the bench. Manu Trigueros scored the other goal and had three shots on target in the match.
Manchester United will look to bounce back with a win over their Spanish opponents. The Red Devils will look and try to attack more in this match. Villareal played attacking football in their previous match. This is the first meeting between the clubs after their Europa League 2020/21 final match, which was won by Villarreal.
