Angers-Villarreal friendly

Villarreal are in Angers to play a friendly against the local side Angers SCO. This was arranged as part of the deal that brought us Toko Ekambi; he stayed around last season in order to keep Angers in Ligue 1, so this is sort of a testimonial match for him.

I don’t have the Angers side, but Villarreal’s starting XI is:

Andrés Fernández; Miguelón, Mario, Víctor Ruiz, Jaume Costa; N’diaye, Morlanes, Layún, Cazorla; Toko Ekambi and Ünal.

N’diaye has apparently interested Cardiff and Middlesbrough, so we are told; interesting to see Mario playing as a center back. That seems like a potentially useful experiment to make right now. And Unal gets to start; he’s been quiet in preseason but remember he had an operation right after the season ended (hernia, was it? I don’t recall).

Quick bit about Angers (the town): I doubt our traveling party has any time to visit it—I’m sure they’re basically flying in and then out—but in addition to being a very pretty town to walk around, Angers Castle contains the Apocalypse Tapestry, one of the truly more mind-boggling things I’ve seen, and something that must have scared the bejeezus out of anyone seeing it when it was made in the 14th century, and is still pretty frightening now, to be honest.

Oh, yes, Angers SCO the team. Founded in 1919, they’ve been in the second division for most of the recent past. They were promoted to Ligue 1 in 2015, finished 14th last season and were runners-up in the French Cup in 2017. I don’t know anything about this year’s team, but Flavian Tait, if he plays, could be worth watching—he scored four times, had three assists, and is a useful attacking midfielder.

Ekambi’s place has apparently been taken by another Cameroun striker, Stéphane Bahoken, who joined on a free from Strasbourg.

Stéphane Moulin is their coach, as he has been since 2011.

The match is available to watch on the Villarreal club website—the blinking icon at the top right (VillarrealTV) is where to go. I doubt there is commentary.