Villarreal to face either Hajduk Split or Vitoria Guimaraes SC in European qualifiers

 

Villareal’s journey in the UEFA Europa Conference League has been set, and the Yellow submarines will face the winner of the Hajduk Split and Vitoria Guimaraes SC tie in the next qualification round of the competition.

The UEFA Europa Conference League is in its second season, and Italian club side, AS Roma are the defending champion after winning the first edition of the competition last season in Albania, beating Dutch club side Feyenoord 1-0 in the final.

The Yellow Submarines were semifinalists in the UEFA Champions League last season, only losing to Liverpool on aggregate. Unfortunately, Unai Emery couldn’t lead the team into the top four places in La Liga and had to settle for the UEFA Europa Conference League spot.

Hadjuk Split will host Vitoria Guimaraes on Thursday 4th of August 2022 in the first leg in Croatia before the second leg happens on the 10 of August in Portugal.

Meanwhile, Villarreal continued their preparations for the new season on Wednesday evening when they faced relegated Levante in a pre-season fixture behind closed doors.

Villarreal won the fixture 3-1. An own goal from Levante player Rober Pier opened the scoring within the first 17 minutes, while Nino Fer doubled the advantage in the 25th minute.

Jose Morales added a third in the second half before Levante scored a consolation in the final minutes.

The Yellow Submarines have not had the busiest of the summer transfer window, although their Dutch forward Arnaut Danjuma has been involved in a transfer rumour which linked him to a move to the Premier League with West Ham United.

However, a deal did not go through, but Unai Emery is looking towards the Premier League for his first signing of the summer as reports indicate that he is interested in signing Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Giovani Lo Celso.

There are indications that Villareal is ready to pay 20 million pounds to sign the midfielder on a loan deal which would also involve an option to buy.

 

Written by: Daniel Ademiju Idowu