This Wednesday evening, when 21,626 football fans had gathered at the Estadio de la Cerámica in Villarreal, a man in a suit stood on the sidelines and hopped.

It was the coach of the team that was smarter and faster in the 87th minute of that match as well.

Christopher Meltzer

Sports correspondent in Munich.

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He bounced as his winger set up the big opportunity with an accurate pass.

He bounced as his full-back missed the big opportunity with an inaccurate shot.

He jumped and jumped and jumped.

As often as a man jumps in the 87th minute, for whom it is not enough that his team is 1-0 up in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Oh, one more thing: This man was not Julian Nagelsmann, the coach of the big FC Bayern Munich, but Unai Emery, the coach of the small FC Villarreal.

Later, Emery, 50, sat on a chair in the stadium's press room and said: "I'm happy, but I'm careful." Villarreal's lead ended - and on the other hand over the second leg in Germany next Tuesday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and on Prime Video), which will only start with more than a one-goal deficit for Munich.

"I still served well with the 0:1"

What you can comment on: FC Bayern lost – and still had a fool.

The latest Bayern Dusel variant could be seen in the game when Spanish striker Gerard Moreno shot the ball from almost 20 meters against the post and then from almost 60 meters despite an empty goal shot wide.

And you could hear them in the DAZN interviews.

"Deserved that we lost.

(...) We could have gotten two more," said Nagelsmann.

"It could have gone higher if things went badly," said Thomas Müller.

"At the end of the day we have to be honest and say that we are still well served with 0-1," said Joshua Kimmich.

It says a lot about this game that the opinion leaders from Munich not only spoke mercilessly, but even somewhat helplessly into the microphones.

Both Nagelsmann and Müller addressed the lack of "power".

The coach lacked it against the ball, the player with the ball. Why?

Again, neither one nor the other could say that.

In his first season in Munich, Nagelsmann wanted to have solutions in the most important weeks.

That evening he watched a team play that had “gambled their way out” of difficult situations.

Because from his point of view it was the wrong team, one could say in his language: The quarter-final first leg in Villarreal was a blatant reality check for his FC Bayern.

One re-embedded in a reality reminiscent of the old reality, with the exception of the masks that are still worn by many on the streets in Spain.

In the city of 50,000, children in neon yellow jerseys were running through the streets hours before the game.

An hour and a half before kick-off, fans with flags lined up at the stadium in the city center to greet the team bus.

The men who later made the stadium scream got out of this bus.

Central defenders Raul Albiol and Pau Francisco Torres, who lost almost no duel.

Midfielders Etienne Capoue and Daniel Parejo, who patrolled and responded in time.

The striker Moreno, who coordinated the counterattacks.

Striker Arnaut Danjuma, who scored the goal of the day in the eighth minute.

And of course Emery, the trainer whom Danjuma later dubbed a "mastermind".

Under him, Villarreal won the Europa League last season.

"We trust him and he trusts us," said Danjuma.

And you don't have to fear a rebuttal if you claim that the seventh in the La Liga table is tactically and technically more capable than the second in the Bundesliga.

On this Wednesday, even the German champions were defeated with their first eleven.

Alphonso Davies' tricks didn't work as well as Kimmich's chip balls.

World footballer Robert Lewandowski is certainly not the best striker in Europe at the moment (Bonne journée, Karim Benzema!).

And even the goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, almost infallible as a soccer player, didn't manage to shoot the ball past Moreno on the halfway line, who then missed the empty goal from almost 60 meters.

"We were significantly better than Bayern tonight," said Daniel Parejo.

No one could and would not disagree.

Not much speaks for Bayern after this first leg - and before the second leg there is more than you think.

This has to do with home advantage - and with a rule change: the abolition of the away goals rule.

Even an early goal in Munich does not make progress impossible.

Sure, Villarreal isn't Salzburg, but it's not Manchester City either.

This 0:1 is not a good result.

But one that, unlike a year ago, you can definitely afford.