Villarreal (Spain) (Home) 16.09.2025

Thomas Frank went for a midfield three of Bergvall, Sarr and Bentancur, leaving Palhinha on the bench, while the three in the forward line were Richi, Simons and Kudus leaving the defence as it has been recently.  In the Villarreal squad were two ex-Gooners – Pepe and Partey (due in court tomorrow on rape and sexual assault charges), while ex-Spurs were included in the shape of captain Juan Foyth and on loan Manor Solomon. 

The game started with a foul on Richarlison by Juan Foyth, but in the second minute, a very strange Spurs free-kick taken by Guglielmo Vicario from just inside his own half from that foul was driven low into towards the D of the Villarreal penalty area.  It was laid back by Micky van de Ven, as he couldn’t control it, but the ball came out to Xavi Simons who struck it powerfully first time, but it was always rising over the bar and it was straight down the middle of the goal, where the keeper might have saved it if it had been lower.  A nice move shortly afterwards handed Tottenham a crucial 1-0 lead early on.  Pedro Porro picked out a good pass along the right wing to Lucas Bergvall, who had made a run into space.  Having been faced up, he shifted the ball to give him an opportunity to play a low ball into the near post, with Richarlison coming into the middle of the box.  The goalkeeper Junior dived out low to cut the cross out and got two hands on the ball as he fell.  It looked as though he had safely gathered it, but his left hand came down heavy on the ball, squashing it against the floor sending it spinning back towards his own goal, where it crept over the goal-line before Foyth to recover to clear it.   Four minutes in and Spurs have the early advantage from a bizarre goal that the keeper did very well to get the ball in the net from where he had it.

Buchanan and Cardona were going down weakly to win free-kicks from the over-officious referee from Slovenia, who was easily sucked in by their theatrics.

Villarreal responded with Spurs having to block a shot from Cardona, that went for a corner from which Foyth shot weakly wide.  Pepe than had another shot blocked by Micky and then Spurs broke, won a corner themselves and from it Rodrigo Bentancur struck a shot that was going on target until a yellow shirted player’s leg got in the way.  When Micky played a blind pass inside to Perez and he sent Pepe away in the right-hand channel, who came inside onto this left foot and shot towards Vicario’s right-hand post, but the ball went a couple of feet wide off Micky’s knee.  Foyth weakly headed the ball wide from the corner.  With 25 minutes gone, the away side had a clear chance, when Romero’s half-clearance allowed Pepe to feed the ball to Buchanan inside the left of the penalty area but his shot across goal went well wide when he really should at least have hit the target.

Pape Matar Sarr had a good low shot well saved by Junior down at the foot of his right-hand post win the 30th minute, with Simons and Richarlison both getting booked as Villarreal players went down at the slightest touch (and some without any touch at all).  As the game approached the 35th minute, a ball into the box saw Richarlison go down under a challenge from behind by Gueye.  he was nowhere near the ball and what was given as a free-kick for the same offence outside the box obviously didn’t meet the high bar required for a penalty.  Just when you thought a foul was a foul wherever it occurred on the pitch !

Two yellows followed for the yellow shirts with Bergvall almost strangled by an arm around his neck and then Simons crudely taken out as he broke into the away half.  Bentancur ran past two defenders at a corner and got his head to it, but knocked it wide with the ball coming off his shoulder.  Three minutes before half time, Simons came inside and played a one-two with Bergvall before his shot went just wide, but the ball came up onto Gueye’s hand that was wide of his body.  VAR had a quick look and said no penalty.  Who knows when a handball is a handball ?

A dodgy claim by Junior failed and it came out to Xavi, who played Djed in on the left corner of the area and he moved it on to Richi, whose shot was deflected into the side netting. 

After half-time, Villarreal intensified their pressing higher up the pitch, which caused Spurs into turning the ball away cheaply that led to a lack of control of the match.  Quite often during the game, Xavi and Djed got too close to each other so it didn’t allow them to find an angle to pass to one another.  Cristian Romero played a careless ball forward that was intercepted and played right to Pepe, who shot from the right-hand corner of the box to miss the far post by 12 inches.  Another loose pass by Kudus was cut out and then another by Bentancur, as Spurs were unable to hold onto the ball, but they did break forward to create a shooting opportunity for Lucas, but with Veiga sliding in, he hit his effort too high.  Kudus then hit another short pass, but Porro won it back as Villarreal looked to break and Spurs kept the ball around the away penalty area for a while, but Djed just over-hit his pass to try to slip Xavi in behind a defender, so the ball ran out for a goal-kick. 

On the hour, Bergvall was played into the right-hand corner of the visitor’s penalty box, winning a corner as he looked to jink into a crossing position and when Kudus put it into the goalmouth, Junior fumbled again, only for a defender to hack the ball away.  There was little noise from the Yellow Submarine fans, who failed to fill out their section and they made more noise as they were shepherded along the Worcester Avenue before the match.

Breaking from a Spurs long throw, Djed won a header it dropped for Villarreal, who had a four on two break.  Micky did well to make a tackle which held them up and then Xavi was pulled up for a foul that looked as though it might be his second yellow card.  That is what the opposition players wanted and Marcelino’s ranting at the fourth official won him a yellow card.  He was at it again when Pepe handballed, but this time the fourth official told him to go away before he got another card. 

Spurs brought on Palhinha for Sarr to try to steady the midfield and then replaced Spence with Udogie.  It seemed to work as Spurs got more possession straight away and when Kudus swung in a cross from the right, Richarlison came in at the far post to dive at the ball, but it hit his hand and went off for a goal-kick, from which the Brazilian chased the defender and keeper down to win the ball for another goal-kick.  Without a lot of good service, he was still working hard for the team.  With 15 minutes left, a couple of substitutions for Villarreal sparked a forward movement, which ended with Akhomach going down weakly under a challenge from Simons in the Spurs box, but as he looked up he was asking for a penalty, but there was little in it, if Richi didn’t get one for the blatant contact from behind in the first half.

The booing of Pepe for his highly unsuccessful spell at Highbury had continued throughout the game from the kick off, but that went to another level when Partey came on as a substitute with his court appearance due the following day.  The Villarreal fans were against his signing and while innocent until proven guilty, you feel that the CPS feel they have a solid enough case to take it to court.  For Tottenham Simons and Richarlison, Brennan Johnson and Randal Kolo Muani came off the bench with the French striker making his debut which lasted only a minute before he got a yellow card for a hand in a defender’s face, despite that defender pulling his shirt at the time.

Kudus wriggled away from his marker that allowed him to knock the ball into Kolo Muani’s chest and he laid it of his chest for Palhinha, but his shot rose over the crossbar.  After about a half of the second period, Spurs were retaining the ball better until a lob over the back line in the 82nd minute gave Mikautadze the chance to break onto it, but Micky came across to knock him over just outside the area.  They all wanted a red card for the tackle, but the player was moving away to the right and that was probably enough to save van de Ven from being dismissed.  As it was, it provided a dangerous free-kick just to the right of centre for Villarreal a foot outside the 18 yard line.  The Spanish fans got excited, thinking that they might be able to salvage something from the match, but when Pepe took it with his left foot, he put it a yard wide and ensured that they still hadn’t got a shot on target in the match.

Palhinha broke up a move in injury time on halfway and played the ball to Kudus, but with Spurs outnumbering the Villarreal defenders 4-3, his pass to Kolo Muani was cut out.  The referee played an extra minute over the three to be added and a free-kick gave the visitors a last chance, but it was flicked on at the edge of the box straight into Vicario’s hands.  The whistle went straight away and three points were in the bag, although perhaps not as convincingly as we would have liked.

While Lucas won the Player of the Match awards, there should be honourable mentions for Rodrigo Bentancur and Mickey van de Ven.  Rodri was excellent on the ball, getting away from three players with the ball and always knowing where his next pass is going to be played, while covering for colleagues all over the pitch.  Micky was one of the defenders who was in the way a lot of the time and while he was caught out with the ball over the top late in the match, he got back to challenge on Mikautadze, fortunately outside the box.  Cristian Romero put in a captain’s performance, making some crunching tackles and organizing the defence that was determined to deny Villarreal any big chances.  Fortunately, when the opponents had them, they couldn’t hit the target.

So, all in all, a hard earned win, with bigger challenges to come, but also some more winnable matches, so this was an important win to get off to a good start in the Champions League against a solid, if ultimately unimpressive Villarreal.

• Randal Kolo Muani makes his Tottenham debut.
• Lucas Bergvall was named UEFA Player of the Match.
• This victory took Tottenham unbeaten run in European competitions at home to 21 matches (17 wins and 4 draws).