MADRID – Villarreal’s struggles in Spanish league openers continued with a 0-0 draw against Granada.
It was the seventh consecutive winless opening match for Villarreal in the league, and it hasn’t started the season with a win at home in six attempts.
A crowd of about 7,000 was at the La Cerámica Stadium as Spanish health authorities allowed capacities of up to 40% in the stadiums for the league’s restart. Some 5,000 had been allowed into Villarreal’s games at the end of last season.
The club presented the Europa League trophy to its fans before the match.
Villarreal played a man down from the 82nd minute as Argentine defender Juan Foyth was sent off with a second yellow card.
Villarreal was coming off a loss in a shootout to Chelsea in the UEFA Super Cup. Unai Emery’s team was seventh in the Spanish league last season.
Granada, which finished ninth in the league last season, earned the away draw in the debut of former Spain national team coach Roberto Moreno.
Also, Elche and Athletic Bilbao drew 0-0 in a rematch of their encounter in the last round last season, when Elche won 2-0 at home to secure its stay in the first division.
Athletic had lost its last three league openers away from home.
Elsewhere, Barcelona president Joan Laporta gave details of the “dramatic” financial problems that persuaded him to release Lionel Messi.
“The economic and financial situation of the club is worrying, and the financial situation is dramatic,” Laporta told a two-hour press conference at the Camp Nou.
Barcelona, he said, have debts of 1.35 billion euros and a wage bill, at 617 million euros, that is “25 to 30 per cent higher than that of our competitors”.
“We are all tightening our belts, in a couple of years the club’s finances will be healthy.”
As for Messi’s departure, Laporta said that the two sides held “negotiations that both parties hoped would be fruitful but didn’t work out. There is a mutual disappointment.”
He confided that the Argentine’s presentation as a Paris Saint-Germain player on Saturday left him with “mixed feelings, like all Barca fans”.
“I would have preferred to see him at Barca, although we have made the right decision,” Laporta said. “I wish him all the best, I like to see him happy, he deserves it. From now on we will be an opponent.”
Barcelona opened their season with a 4-2 home win over Real Sociedad.
“It was a very Barca-like reaction,” Laporta said. “All the players are more motivated than ever.”
“Sunday showed that Barcelona fans are hungry for football and to see a team that fights and plays well”.
“A new era is beginning. The short-term prospects are complicated, but in the medium-term they are magnificent,” said Laporta, adding that Barcelona plan to return to developing young players as they did with Messi, who came through the youth system known as ‘La Masia’.
“We are going to bet on La Masia, which will allow us to develop the model we want.”
