Star Card System

In the 35th minute of the first half, Nicola Pepe was brought down in the penalty area.

The referee blew the whistle and awarded Arsenal a penalty.

The Arsenal players were excited!

Their chance to score a goal was here!

But just as the Arsenal players were celebrating excitedly, the referee changed the decision - the penalty was cancelled!

Due to the serious resistance of the Villarreal players, the referee decided to watch VAR.

It was clearly seen from the video playback that although Pepe was tackled in the penalty area, he handballed again, and the penalty was still not established.

The Arsenal players were very unwilling, but they had no choice.

It was indeed a handball just now, and there was nothing wrong with not giving a penalty.

It was such a pity...

Countless Villarreal fans in the stands shouted "Long live VAR!", enjoying the joy of surviving the disaster.

With a two-goal advantage, Villarreal ended the first half of the game.

In the second half, Arsenal's offensive was obviously much more rapid, and their midfield pressing hardness also increased.

But bad luck happened again.

In the 57th minute of the game, during a match between Villarreal and Arsenal midfielder Ceballos, he fell to the ground and made a reckless foul, knocking down his opponent.

Seeing the opponent's player rolling on the ground, he knew he was in trouble.

Sure enough, the referee ran to him and showed him his second yellow card of the game.

Two yellow cards turned into one red card, and he was off the court!

Walking off the court in frustration, Ceballos knew that his future at Arsenal was over.

In the summer of 2019, he came to Arsenal on loan from Real Madrid. In two seasons, he failed to secure a starting position at Arsenal.

And this reckless foul made him lose the opportunity to stay.

He himself didn't know what the future would be like...

Ceballos didn't know what his future would be like, but Arteta knew it very well.

Arsenal was in trouble.

Already two goals behind and one man short, they were in complete trouble.

Still want to score?

It's too difficult.

Regarding Ceballos' yellow card, teammate Thomas Partey protested strongly and eventually received a yellow card.

Arteta on the sidelines shouted to the players to calm everyone down.

If one more person is sent off, just admit defeat and surrender.

Five minutes later, Arteta finally made a change.

He admitted his mistake.

The 20-year-old young player Martinelli came on as a substitute, replacing Odegaard who played as a striker.

Odegaard performed very poorly on the front line in this game and did not do what a striker should do.

Less than ten minutes after Martinelli came on, he helped the team create a great opportunity.

Received the ball with his back to the goal in the penalty area and turned to pass!

Pau Torres kicked and shoveled!

Martinelli fell to the ground!

The referee whistled!

Penalty!

This time, even if the Villarreal players protested, the referee was no longer entangled!

It was a penalty, he saw it clearly!

Arsenal finally got what they wanted.

As the second penalty taker in the team, Pepe took the lead in the absence of Calazette.

With a push, the ball went into the net!

2 to 1!

Arsenal scored a goal!

Even though they were one man short, the tenacious Arsenal still scored an important goal!

And shortly after the goal, Villarreal also received the second yellow card of the game because of a defense, and Capoue was also sent off.

Arsenal saw the opportunity!

At the last moment, all-out attack!

Villarreal's momentum was weak, they retreated across the board and resisted tenaciously!

Even though Arteta replaced offensive players such as Aubameyang and William in succession, and even Aubameyang played with an injury, he still failed to equalize the score.

In the end, Arsenal lost the away game in this game, losing 1 to 2.

But it was not a very bad result, after all, they were only one goal behind, and they also got an away goal.

Not bad.

In the second round of the game back at home, Arsenal launched a fierce attack.

However, Villarreal did not give up the attack. They sent out many fast players and focused on defensive counterattacks today.

Both sides created many good opportunities, but none of them turned into shots in the end.

The highest score of the game after the game was from Arsenal defender Pablo Mari, which proved everything.

In the end, Arsenal failed to score at home, and a score of 0-0 made them leave the Europa League bitterly.

And Villarreal successfully advanced to the Europa League final.

Their opponent is Manchester United, who is also from the Premier League.

In fact, it is very interesting to think about it. Manchester United and Villarreal all advanced by stepping on the corpses of the other league teams in the knockout stage.

Manchester United swept Granada, and Villarreal defeated Arsenal.

The two sides met in the final, which was a contest between the Premier League and La Liga.

Before this game, countless media hyped up, and fans also took the lead in starting the war on the Internet.

The most violent ones were the English media and fans.

The Times: "Manchester United won all the way to the final. But Villarreal stumbled to the end. So Manchester United has a higher chance of winning."

The Guardian: "Manchester United is full of superstars. They are not a Europa League team. They only slipped away because of bad luck in the Champions League. The final is still their stage to shine."

And English fans are also crazy about their team online.

Among the many words expressing confidence, there is one sentence with the highest like rate.

"Second place in the Premier League vs. seventh place in La Liga, do we still need to consider the outcome?"

There is indeed nothing wrong with this statement.

The Premier League's current status has surpassed La Liga, and many fans think so.

Look at this season's Champions League and Europa League.

The Champions League final is Manchester City vs. Chelsea, and the Europa League final is Manchester United vs. Villarreal.

The Premier League occupies three-quarters.

What else is there to say?

This confidence and momentum of winning have excited countless media and fans.

Manchester United fans have prepared fireworks for the championship celebration.

Even the Manchester United club has considered in advance how to arrange the Old Trafford Stadium.

This emotion has infected Manchester United's soldiers.

The Manchester United soldiers who are preparing for the game in Poland have been excited during training these days, as if they have already grasped the final.

Solskjaer also kept encouraging the players and cheering them up.

But Xia Xing was a little worried.

He did not go directly to Solskjaer, but found Carrick to communicate the current situation.

"Xia, what's up?"

"I don't think the team is doing well now."

"What do you mean?"

"Mentality."

"Oh, do you think everyone is a little too confident?"

"I'm not worried about everyone's confidence. I'm worried that because of the confidence, we underestimate our opponents, which will be troublesome."

"Xia, I understand what you mean. I sincerely ask you, how much do you think we have a chance of winning this final?"

"Fifty-fifty."

"Are you a little conservative?"

"We didn't get the upper hand against Arsenal this season, did we?"

"Yes."

"But Villarreal did it, they eliminated Arsenal. Just based on this point, we must never underestimate them!" (End of this chapter)