Coach Manfred Schmid’s team was clearly beaten 0:5 (0:2) by the “Yellow Submarine” controlled by coach Unai Emery in the Estadi Ciutat de Valencia. In Group C, Austria is bottom with just one point, Villarreal has nine points at the maximum.
Alex Baena (18th), Arnaut Danjuma (43rd) and Jose Luis Morales with a hat trick (76th, 80th, 88th) secured the Spaniards a somewhat too high but deserved success in front of around 10,000 spectators. Since the parallel game between Lech Posen and Hapoel Be’er Sheva ended 0-0, the Viennese still have chances of promotion with three points behind second-placed Posen. To do this, the “Violets” have to write in the home game against the Spaniards next Thursday (6.45 p.m.). The derby at Rapid awaits Austria on Sunday.
The evening started anything but ideal for Austria. Andreas Gruber was out for a short time, the winger didn’t do well during the warm-up. He was replaced on the right flank by Aleksandar Jukic. Striker Muharem Huskovic played from the left while Dominik Fitz played the ‘wrong nine’. As in the first two European Cup games, Emery rotated and did without a few regular players.
After a minute’s silence for the numerous victims of the Indonesian stadium disaster at the weekend, the game in Valencia began, in which the hosts immediately took command. Above all, Samuel Chukwueze on the right caused the “Violets” great concern again and again, Dario Kreiker was often second winner against the tricky, agile winger. There was a penalty alert when Chukwueze went down in a duel with the 19-year-old (9′). However, referee Jochem Kamphuis from the Netherlands allowed play to continue, and there is no VAR review in the ECL group phase.
Shortly thereafter, Austria appeared dangerously in front of the Spaniards’ goal for the first time, but Manfred Fischer headed just wide of the goal after a Braunöder cross (10′). On the other hand, Villarreal did better: Chukwueze danced past Kreiker and crossed to Baena, who took the ball with his left thigh and circled it elegantly and untenably for Christian Früchtl into the Kreuzeck with his right (18th). It was the fourth goal in the current competition for the 21-year-old.
The Viennese were not shocked by the deficit, an entertaining game developed with chances for both sides. Huskovic headed in after Braunöder’s submission to the supposed equalizer (24th), but was just offside. A little later Dominik Fitz hit the bar with a free kick from more than 20 meters (28th).
The Schmid squad was always vulnerable when the Iberians switched quickly. Nicolas Jackson (32′) and Danjuma (38′) initially missed good counterattack opportunities, before the latter then struck before the break. James Holland initiated the yellow team’s goal with a bad pass, Danjuma walked through the purple defense and netted the right to make it 2-0 (43′).
At the break, Schmid took Kreiker out of the game and brought in Manuel Polster instead. Villarreal now switched on the gentle cycle and gave Austria more space, which also accepted it. However, Fitz also failed because of keeper Filip Jörgensen (58th) as did Huskovic with a turning shot (60th), while Jukic aimed over the goal (63rd). On the other side, Chukwueze missed the preliminary decision (64′), Früchtl cleared the 23-year-old Nigerian with a strong foot save.
Substitute Morales made the final decision with a flawless hat-trick. After a long ball in which Früchtl and captain Lukas Mühl didn’t look good, the striker increased the lead to 3-0 (76′). As a result, the 35-year-old refined two lightning-fast counterattacks to a resounding victory. Austria coach Schmid took some regular players off the field in the end, probably to spare them for the derby.
Source: Nachrichten
