“I said, ‘Where is Villarreal?'” says Etienne Capoue, who remembers it as though he were looking at a globe map and pointing down.
“I was told it was in the sun, just there, next to Valencia. So I said ‘alright, let’s go’.”
Capoue’s last two outings for Watford were against Norwich and Huddersfield in England’s second division.
He left Villarreal in January 2021, and his final two appearances for the club were against Real Madrid and Manchester United. Villarreal won the Europa League final on penalties, and Capoue was chosen man of the match.
Villarreal, a club Capoue had never heard of, takes on Liverpool in the opening leg of the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday. A small peaceful hamlet on Spain’s east coast suddenly has a chance to be proclaimed European kings.
“Winning the Champions League? We never had the audacity to say we could win the Champions League,” Capoue tells AFP laughing.
“We’re the smallest club in the semi-finals, we were the smallest club in the quarter-finals. We’re just making our merry way. And we have nothing to lose.”
Villarreal eliminated Juventus in the last 16 and Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals, two clubs that have won twice as many European Cups – eight – as Villarreal has knockout stage victories.
In 1976, Villarreal was relegated to Spain’s fourth division as Bayern Munich won their third European Cup in a row.
The talk of fairytales and giant killings may be wearing some Villarreal residents down.
Villarreal is a small town with a huge club: the Europa League champions, a team owned by a grocery magnate, and a team that has just finished outside of La Liga’s top seven in the last eight seasons.
“We don’t care, we know we’re underdogs,” says Capoue.
“Nobody will say we’re favorites because we’re not. Who are the other teams? What else can we say about them?
“It’s not offending anyone to say there are 50,000 people here and in their stadiums alone, they have 70,000 seats. We don’t mind, it’s the truth.”
“Anfield is hell”
Liverpool will be a step up once more, with Jurgen Klopp’s side still chasing an unprecedented quadruple.
And the battle at Anfield is one of the toughest in football, as Capoue knows all too well. He’s been there four times, all for Watford, and each time he’s lost by an aggregate score of 18-1.
“Anfield is hell, you have to say it how it is. It’s hell,” says Capoue.
“It’s the worst stadium I’ve been to in England. Whether it’s the atmosphere, the way they play… For 90 minutes, you live in hell.
“They have this ability to transcend themselves, to cause you nothing but problems, all the time, in any part of the field.
“They never stop, they rush you all the time, they only want to score goals, and even when they score, they carry on. They want to knock you out.
“They don’t care what or who is in front of them. They just want to kill everyone and that’s it.”
At least Capoue is unlikely to be intimidated. The French midfielder is not a fan of football, avoids watching football at home and says “I don’t want football to be my whole life”.
Unai Emery, the coach of Villarreal, will, on the other hand, be fully informed about his opponents this week. Emery’s careful planning includes infamously extended video sessions, with the goal of preparing his players for any eventuality.
“I’m in the front row, I’m the good student,” Capoue says with a smile.
“I don’t watch football at all so I don’t mind. If the others watch football at home and then when they come in they have to watch more football videos, maybe that annoys them.
“It doesn’t bother me because I know it’s not for fun, it’s work. He does it to give you as much information as possible and in the end, all these situations, in matches, they happen.
“At the end of the match, you say to yourself, ‘you know what, the coach, he is incredibly smart’. That happens to me all the time.”
Capoue has no doubt about the root of Emery’s problems at Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal.
“The coach’s main way of playing is about putting your ego aside,” says Capoue. “We do, and that shows on the pitch, but with the big teams that’s also what came back to bite him.”
At Villarreal, it’s a method the players “follow blindly”, says Capoue, an approach that instils belief.
“We’re in the semis which shows we weren’t afraid of Juventus or Bayern,” he says.
“We’re not a big team but we’re a solid team, playing for the love of football, that wants to enjoy this moment. Because what we’re experiencing is incredible.”
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