Villarreal keeps on surprising, beats Bayern in CL quarters

VILLARREAL, Spain (AP) — Villarreal pulled off another surprising Champions League result, this time against sixth-time champion Bayern Munich to boost its hopes of returning to the semifinals for the first time in 16 years.

After making it past the group stage and eliminating Juventus in the round of 16, the modest Spanish club took a big step toward reaching the last four by holding on to a 1-0 victory against favorite Bayern in the first leg of the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Arnaut Danjuma’s goal early in the first half was enough for Villarreal at the La Cerámica Stadium, with Bayern unable to get past the solid defense of Unai Emery’s squad and losing only for the second time in 30 Champions League matches.

Bayern was unbeaten in its last 22 away games in the Champions League, with 17 wins and five draws in a record run that had started after a loss in 2017 to a Paris Saint-Germain team coached by Emery.

The Germans struggled throughout the match on Wednesday and were glad to leave only one goal down.

“We’ll take the 1-0 result," veteran Thomas Müller said. “We know that things could have been a lot worse. We have to pay a lot of respects to our opponents. Now we need to pick ourselves back up for the return leg and hit back.”

The second leg is next week in Munich, where Villarreal will need a draw to get to the semifinals for the first time since its first last-four appearance in the Champions League in 2006. Villarreal stunned Juventus 3-0 in Italy after a 1-1 draw at home in the last 16.

In the other quarterfinal Wednesday, defending champion Chelsea lost 3-1 to Real Madrid in the first leg in London.

“We deserved to lose. We weren’t good today,” Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann said. “In the first half, we