Gio Lo Celso, Juan Foyth, Gero Rulli out of Champions League with Villarreal

By
Roy Nemer
-
39

Gio Lo Celso, Juan Foyth and Geronimo Rulli are out of the Champions League for Villarreal as they lost 5-2 vs. Liverpool.

The three Argentine players played a pivotal part in Unai Emery’s team reaching the semi finals. However, Liverpool were a bit too much for the Spanish club.

All three started the match as Villarreal took an early 1-0 lead, just two minutes into the match. Gio Lo Celso appeared to have been taken down inside the penalty area but the referee did not call the penalty and play would continue.

Villarreal would eventually get a second before half time as they would draw level 2-2, with everything to play for in the second half. However, the second half was the opposite of the first.

If the first half had Villarreal in control of the game, the second half had Liverpool in complete cruise control. They would score through Fabinho with the ball going through Rulli’s legs.

Liverpool’s second goal was from Luis Diaz as his header would hit Rulli and go through his legs. The third however was one that Rulli would like to forget.

Rulli would come out of the penalty area for the ball and it was an open goal for Liverpool as Sadio Mane would score.

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39 Comments

  2. Let’s not forget, Lo Celso was the man of the match in the first leg vs Juventus.

    Of course he’s no Riquelme, Aimar or even Cambiasso.

    However, in my opinion, he is an important piece of the puzzle in the current iteration of the NT, arguably not as important as De Paul but with Lo Celso on the field we tend to be more dynamic, proactive and have more meaningful possession and penetration than without him.

  4. Lol people here saying locelso is better than likes of riquelme, Redondo,aimar, ortega, simeone, Mascherano is so disrespectful towards our legends. He is our player so i don’t him but to say he is the best midfielder in 20-30 years plain stupid opinion. He is not even better than cambiaso who also won uefa Champions League and copa finalist and 5 schudetto for inter. Yes he was the part of the team which won copa after 28 years but thats not for him whole tournament messi was best and major contribution from emi Martinez and dimaria and lautaro. He wasn’t even our top 5 player in the tournament.

    • He is neither as good as Riquelme nor as average or unimportant as some people make him out to be. For some reason it’s either one extreme or the other for most people on this site. ddr1123 best summed him up, an above average player that doesn’t play badly but is not world class. I don’t see what the fuss is, he’s perfect for our midfield and is never poor for us. If I had the option to replace him with any other midfielder in the world I would maybe only choose 2-3 in the world. That’s not saying he’s the fourth best midfielder but he’s perfectly reliable for us. I wouldn’t ask for much more. He should be one of the least dividing players yet it goes from one extreme to the other constantly. Even a week after having a great performance people start criticizing him in a constant cycle.

      • Yes i agree locelso is decent. Yes i would have liked to have a pedri, kevin debruyne, modric but we don’t have that luxury so we have to contend with locelso. If he works hard, recover the balls well and do his defensive work our forward line which i believe is among the top 3 forward line right now will do the job easily.

      • Did not expect that from you Olive….He is indeed more than decent he is very good dont forget the chance after chance he created for ARG around the copa time. He is not Aimar or Roman though……

    • Lo celso is good player against Bayern he was world class, his first few matches in Spurs were world class performances but he is not consistent that is problem he can be easily bullied in pitch but he is getting stronger in Villareal slowly. Lo celso needs strong mentality to perform better regularly.

  5. Argentina are always shortage on world class midfielder. Some one say what about lo celso, i disagree with him..yes lo celso is best Argentine creative Mid not only current team but also last 20 years even he is better than legend slow Requleme..the fact is when you play with reputed club team like barca,madrid,city Liverpool manu etc and play 4/5 good game you easily get world class tag. gio what he played with villareal if it was ManU then he easily get the tag..i think for geting world class tag you need to play for reputed clubs. And apart from last 3/4 months he always struggling with injury with spurs..Lautaro is World class too..can you see last 2 years Argentina matches? So please rewatch and you easily get when lo celso played, how many chance are Argentina create or when he didn’t how many chance Argentina create? At least see last Ecuador match…
    And Armani is far better than ruliiii

    • Sorry bro what are you talking about
      You can’t put riquelme in same bracket of celso Riquelme was arguably one of the best players on his generation, so unique so elegant joy to watch
      Win games single handly… just watch Argentina vs Côte d’Ivoire World Cup in 2006 the through ball or split pass results javier saviola first world Cup.
      Watch villareal vs inter Milan quartafinal Riquelme destroyed inter Milan single handly. It’s absolutely insults to compare likes celso to Riquelme. I wish lo celso could do half of juan roman riquelme did on his career. Even eve banega was much better than lo celso.

      • To add that riquelme had 58 caps scored 17 times including rocket vs Brazil in the last time Argentina beat Brazil in world Cup qualifier in home soil.

        pronunciation: [ˈxwan roˈman riˈkelme]; born 24 June 1978) is an Argentine former professional footballer and current vice-president of Boca Juniors, the club where he spent the majority of his playing career.[1] He is considered by various journalists, players and coaches as one of the greatest Argentine players of all time, as well as one of the most outstanding midfielders of his generation. That says all

  7. neither foyth neither montiel is proven right back for argentina up till now.. AR needs to look for other option for right back.. ar can’t rely on foyth bcs he don’t give anything in the offense .. does anyone know how is doing renzo saravia,, or any other player as right back.. and will it be good? if.. ocampos given option to play as right back.. will his defence good

    enzo fernandes must be choosen from the next ar play.. . neither domingues neither palacious is better than enzo.. enzo needs competetive experience as soon as possible .. to get up with the team ..

    • foyth level has improved.. but there is still some question marks in his mistake still there is some childish sign in his movement.. if he could little more improved in offence .. it would better ..

  8. Who should be our starting RB ? Foyth has again started the heated debate by his outstanding performance in the Champions league. In my opinion Molina is the undisputable starter. His offensive skills are a bit better than his defense but he is a solid RB and will move to a big club after the world cup. He is fastest among the three and Scaloni need fast Full backs to maintain pressing. Montiel was playing really well when Navas was out injured and out of all three he is a proper conventional RB. He is not world class and is just an average RB but is a good backup. Regarding Foyth, he certainly has improved and improved exceptionally well. It wasn’t easy for world class wingers to pass Foyth and he doesn’t seem to be committing howlers like in the past. Solid in the back and also very swift in moving the ball forward but the when it comes to providing crosses in the box , he is no where to be seen. For a Fullback you have to have the skills to cross into the box and in that area he falls behind both Molina and Montiel.

    Lo-Celso’s inclusion was one of the reason Villarreal was able to move past Bayern Munich and he played quite well against Liverpool too. He is a very good midfielder but it would be stupid to expect him to create multiple chances in one match like Messi. Only Messi can create amazing chances from nowhere and there has been no player in the last decade like him who could produce magic regularly every match. Lo-Celso is a undisputable starter along with Parades and DePaul for us.

    Regarding Rulli, I would rather have experienced Armani than him. Armani might not be as skilled as him or Emi or even Musso but he is mentally solid. During La-liga matches Rulli looks impenetrable however when it comes to crunch matches he simply can’t handle the pressure. Argentina has paid huge price because of mentally weak players in the past and we can’t afford to take another one to the world cup.

  9. Really unfortunate what happened yesterday, when the second goal went in I got so hopeful and excited for Villarreal yet Rulli’s disastrous and embarrassing performance undid everything they had perfectly constructed. Now some people are worried about our second goalkeeper but personally I am still very comfortable with Musso. Even a couple of weeks ago when Rulli was still the rave I would have chosen Musso as our second option, because a) he’s been with the team longer and more consistently, b) he doesn’t have these disastrous moments as far as I know. People like to cite the fact that he’s conceded more this season which I also noticed from the beginning, but I haven’t watched Atalanta enough to know if it’s him and frankly I don’t think anyone else has because all I hear is “he’s conceding more”, which even Emi is and he’s still our best keeper. After Romero left Atalanta was left with Demiral, Palomino, Scalvini, Toloi, and Djimsiti as their defenders. I don’t know who half of them are. As we saw with Emi a poor defense naturally makes you concede more. So if anyone’s watched Atalanta let me know if I’m right or wrong because I don’t think Musso is any less of a goalkeeper than he was before

  10. I remember many years ago Villarreal was one PK away from advancing to the final of CL. Riquelme was a superb PK taker but I think Lehmann shopped the PK. That Villarreal was also medicore, they had only Riquelme.

    This Villarreal is super close to making it. Give them a credit. To make it to semi final is not an easy task. Rulli, Foyth, and Lo Celso are their key players. Give them credit.

    Hope those 3 will stimulate other Argentina players to play in Champions league because othet than the World Cup, Champions league is the most prestigious tournament in club level. If you are a footballer, you want to make your name there. The likes of Emi Martinez, Molina, Cuti are too good not to play in CL.

  11. Benitez should be Emi’s back up. He has most clean sheets in ligue 1, and PSG hasnt score against him in both league games. 1-0 win for Nice and 0-0 draw. He also stopped Mbappe and Messi clear chances.

    Rulli most likely will be dropped after this performance. If he cant handle CL game preasure, no way he could handle preasure in WC games.

    I remember when Leo Franco came in to replace Abondanzieri in 2006, he looked like nervous wreck and proof be to be useless in shootout .

  13. When Villareal scored two, I really started to believe that they’ll reach final.
    But, finally became very very sad!! 😪😭

    & keep Rulli away from NT. In his day, he’s great but under pressure he’s just very ordinary & dangerous. Emi, Ledesma, Musso should be our gks. Especially in this season Ledesma was really superb!

  14. Good run by the yellow submarine and our only 3 players left. We have fallen way far off in terms of individual talents (try to listen to what I say). We barely have our players playing at this level. This is very sad. Individually, we don’t have players like Messi, Tevez, Di Maria, Mascherano who consistently played at top level.

    Anyhow this experience will be helpful for Foyth, GLC and Rulli.

    Rulli: He never was a good GK. Like some said, Emi must be in top form and play every minute, else there is a huge difference between number 1 and 2.

    Foyth: I think he did quite well. Given what he had to deal with, Juve, Bayern, Liverpool. He did quite well, above my expectations.

    GLC: He is good. The young brother of the family who works hard but cannot play the role of the Dad or the big brother in the family. No matter how much he is hyped here, I cannot place my hand in my heart and say, if Villareal made it till here, its because of him. I can say that about Juan Roman Riquelme.

    Like I said, individually we have fallen behind. But Scaloni and co. are building a good solid team. Collectively we can do well. And we still have Messi for the magic.

    • “Like I said, individually we have fallen behind. But Scaloni and co. are building a good solid team. Collectively we can do well. And we still have Messi for the magic” I couldn’t agree more on this we far behind from other big nations on the individual level but as team which counts most we are solid. Let me take opportunity on this aswell I see some people saying some our players are world class I don’t know how you guys define a word class but in my book Argentina don’t have world class player at moment except messi and maybe di maria
      If I bet someone who will be a world class in next few years it will be cuti Romero absolutely like him. Licha can be world class if he moves to big leagues Lautaro Martinez is another one who could be world class.
      De Paul and paredes have world class ability but they don’t produce on consistent level in thier clubs.

      • Emi Martinez, lisandro, Romero, Messi and lautaro is world class. Im not sure about dimaria he is not a starter in psg and also not getting much minutes in sub role im not sure how his form is right now. Our midfield is absolutely mediocre noone is world class bt they don’t need much when u have forwards like Messi lautaro dimaria alvarez or nico Gonzalez or even Dybala. They just need to be defensively sound and work hard and our forwards will manage the attacking things. Our main prblm is no fullback of ours scores goal or provide assists or pre assists. All 5 fullback options are limited in attacking front molina, Montiel, foyth, acuna, tagliafico

        • While Molina hasn’t scored for NT, he has 6 league goals so far this season and some of them have been really great goals. He is the highest scoring fullback in Europe’s top leagues right now!

          transfermarkt.com/scorer/topscorer/statistik/2021/plus/0/galerie/0?saison_id=2021&art=top&land_id=0&altersklasse=&ausrichtung=Abwehr&spielerposition_id=5&filter=1&yt0=Show

        • For me Di Maria is world class by default. One of the most underrated players of the last decade. Whether he’s a starter or not I think he is world class. My list is Messi, Di Maria, Dybala (on his day) and Romero. Maybe some would argue against Romero since he hasn’t completely refined and ironed out his consistency (like the mistake against Brighton, etc) but these moments are still very rare. I consider him a world class level player right now

        • @anuparno our midfield is mediocre? Are you still in 2022 or in 2018? Suggesting our midfield don’t have to do much when you have players like Nico gonzalez Alvarez and dybala?😂😂😂. Are you kidding me? You forgot what this midfield trio contributed during this unbeaten run? Even Messi and lautaro was just helpless in that all important copa final. And your so called attackers like Nico and alvarez were clapping for the team from the side bench and dybala from home. And this mid field trio shouldered the attack and defense with 💯. And you mentioning them mediocre?😂🤭. Mid fielders are the real heroes.

  15. Musso’s stock suddenly went up, although Csabalala was right, there is a huge gulf in quality between Emi and the rest of the goalkeepers. I wanna see Ledesma tried.

    Only Lo Celso can come out of this CL with his head held high, Foyth was good defensively except for a few occasions, as I said many times, he should be in the 26 as a back-up CB or emergency RB if both Montiel and Molina are unavailable.

    • Lo celso didn’t do much either last night. I think we overhype lo celso pretty much every time that he plays but nothing especial about him in my opinion I used had high hopes but not anymore,

      • GLC is indeed the most over hyped player here. I don’t get it at all. He is a good player, make no mistake. But here its like, if he is on the field that means he is best midfielder in the world. He is nothing special. I am seeing him over 4 clubs in 2 countries and also for Argentina. he is strictly a above average, decent football player, who generally has decent games, sometimes very good with some moments of magic and rarely very bad.

        Questions we have to ask: Is there any club or country whose fans or coach would say, OMG I must have this player in my team? Would you care if he was not Argentine?

      • Yes it’s true he is not living up to the expectations but he is the best we have at the moment. Also we can’t compare players who hasn’t been in this sort of situation, ( leave messi, Di Maria and few others coz they have proved time and again) remember he played against Liverpool by far the best team in the planet. No one in Argentine shirt can replace Lo Celso at this moment.

        • what expectation do you have of him? can you please explain that in 3 bullets? this is the best he can do, in case you have not noticed over last 7-8 years.

          Yes, I agree he is the best we have got. If I choose my Argentina NT team now, he will always be there. If I have to choose Argentina team of all time or last 20 years (I can go last 30 years too) he will never be there.

  17. We always said on here that Rulli is inconsistent and error prone.
    A run of good form can mask these issues but will only get you so far before you get exposed.

    The reason Montiel played and won Copa America and Foyth watched it on TV is that Foyth has these issues too!

    Sure he has had some good moments in this UCL campaign & season. He has improved and shown glimpses of maturity and professionalism.
    But he has also proven that he is still susceptible to making these silly mistakes in dangerous areas. Lapses of concentration/brainfarts/poor judgement call it whatever you want.
    Giving ball away in the box, attempting and failing to dribble past several players instead of clearing around the box, silly fouls near the box, doubting himself when making runs etc…
    It’s the same things he demonstrated to Scaloni before Copa that left him out of squad…

    The key to watching Foyth this year is paying attention to these things, not by applauding his defensive qualities that we already know he has. Either he finally overcomes these issues or he brings them to NT.

    WE ALL KNOW THAT HE IS A TALENTFUL PLAYER (!!!)
    AND WE ALL WANT HIM TO SUCCEED (!!!)

    BUT bringing players that are PROVEN to be inconsistent and error prone into a knockout tournament is DANGEROUS as Rulli very clearly demonstrated last night

    • Just gonna add that I’m happy that we and coach have seen how he is on the big stage against strong opponents
      I’m tired of the Foyth echo-chamber here and I won’t mention him until it’s relevant again, but for now I still don’t fully trust him. He has the talent, but he needs to apply what our coach has asked of him

      Lo Celso was excellent!
      Underrated midfielder. Class!

      Thanks to Roy and those who reported the troll. Bigotry and trolling has no place here

  18. I think rulli mentality is completely opposite of emi. Emi will get charged up in a big stage and would give his all. But rulli is not confident enough in big stages. If the matches are in leagues or
    other smaller competitions rulli can be atleast 3/4 of emi. Here in mundo we always praised the talents available for Argentina in the goal keeping department. One of those had been rulli. And atlast it fell down. Again waiting for the back ups of our two extreme positions. A striker and a Goal keeper.

  19. At least Liverpool match has exposed how terrible Rulli is. 3 out of the five goals Liverpool scored against Villarreal in both legs was Rulli’s fault

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