Tickets for Belfast on sale; Parejo will miss it

For those of you hoping to make it to the Supercopa against Chelsea on August 11, UEFA has now announced how to apply for tickets. The link is here; capacity is limited to 13,000 of which the clubs each get 1500, so probably there will be a lottery for places. But, especially if you are a Villarreal fan in the UK, it is worth a try!

I have also contacted the club to see if they can help, but given the presumed large numbers of local fans wanting to go and the small ticket allocation, I expect you may have better luck in the general draw.

Meanwhile, Dani Parejo will not be able to play in the match; he suffered a muscle injury in his right leg yesterday in the friendly against Levante. It finished 0-0 and not much happened, apart from a ridiculously nasty challenge from Roberto Soldado on Isaac Cuenca. Miraculously our guy wasn’t hurt, but in a just world Soldado would face a lengthy suspension for a premeditated attack like this. The referee only gave him a yellow!

Between absentees from Covid and quarantine, Villarreal was missing a lot of key players, and I am not sure one can glean much from this match other than Soldado is a nasty bastard, and we already knew that!

We have added a friendly against Leeds United on August 7 (in Leeds) so, if we can get everyone back in time, we have some interesting matches coming up against Marseille, Leicester and Leeds before the Supercup itself. Any Villarreal fans in the UK who can get to those friendlies?

Endavant, i animo Dani!