Not so often, the Champions League offers some surprises, such as an unfavorable team going far in the European interclub scene.
In this edition, it happened.
Villarreal, owner of only one relevant title in its 99-year history – it has existed since March 10, 1923 – eliminated none other than the mega-favorite Bayern, in the Allianz Arena, in Munich.
The feat came with a 1-1 victory, after a 1-0 victory in the first leg, at Estádio da Cerâmica (popularly known as El Madrigal), in Spain.
Bayern even took the lead this Tuesday (12), with the Polish striker Lewandowski (always him), but the Yellow Submarine equalized in the 43rd minute of the second half, in a counterattack, with the Nigerian substitute Chukwueze.
It caught my attention that the Nigerian, who had entered the game four minutes earlier, apparently missed his shot. He hit the ball so that it touched the grass and went up, covering goalkeeper Neuer.
Detail of the goal aside, the team held the tie for a few more minutes and eliminated the six-time champion of the Champions League (the last time in 2020) and 31 times champion of the German Championship.
Thus, Submarino Amarelo is in the semifinal stage, where it will face the winner of the confrontation between two other European giants, Liverpool and Benfica, to be defined this Wednesday.
I mentioned Submarino Amarelo twice, which is Villarreal’s nickname. The uniform, all the color of the Sun, explains part of it. But where did the submarine come from, and when?
The music connoisseur reader knows that “Yellow Submarine” is a famous song (“Yellow Submarine”) by the famous and unforgettable Beatles, an English band with resounding success in the 1960s.
According to the UEFA website, in the 1967/1968 season, in which Villarreal were struggling to climb to the Spanish third division, “a group of fans behind one of the goals started playing the Beatles song on a tape recorder”.
And in the chorus they, alluding to the players’ yellow shirts, sang: “Amarillo es el Villarreal, amarillo es, amarillo es” (Yellow is Villarreal, yellow is, yellow is).
The original lyrics go like this: “We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine” (We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine).
There is no information on how long, or in how many games at the time, the adapted chorus was sung, but someone named the Yellow Submarine team amid the chant, and the nickname stuck, lasting to this day.
Fans like him, so much so that even Villarreal’s mascot, called Groguet, is a submarine – yellow on the body, blue on the head and limbs and red on the periscope, bearing the colors of the club’s crest.
Villarreal already reached a Champions League semi-final in 2006, when they were eliminated by Arsenal after losing 1-0 in England and drawing 0-0 in Spain. The star of this Submarino Amarelo team was Argentine midfielder Riquelme.
Only seventh in the 2020/2021 Spanish Championship –it is also their current position–, Villarreal qualified for the current Champions League by winning the Europa League, beating Manchester United in the decision.
This is the only important achievement of the almost century-old club, which has never won Espanyol or the Copa del Rey. In addition to the Europa League, Villarreal has two Intertoto Cups (2003 and 2004), a summer tournament that was discontinued in 2008.
In this Champions League, the Yellow Submarine, to advance to the semifinals, eliminated before Bayern, in the round of 16, the Italian Juventus. In the group stage, he was second in the group won by Man United and which also had Atalanta (Italy) and Young Boys (SUI).
The team of coach Unai Emery has as main highlights the Argentines Rulli (goalkeeper) and Lo Celso (midfielder), the Spaniards Pau Torres (defender) and Gerard Moreno (forward), and the Dutch striker Danjuma.
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