why was Villareal time wasting?

[teddykgb]

This is something that was bugging me at the game and I haven't seen much of a discussion since, but why on earth was Villareal time wasting?

At 1-0, I suppose you could say that they're trying to hold on for 80 some odd minutes and a 1-0 win. It's pretty crazy and quite early to be doing it as early as they were, but it's almost an explanation.

However, after we equalized, they continued with the same antics for the duration of the match, even picking up a card for continued wasting in the 90th minute. This is a team that had 0 points coming into the match and a draw did absolutely no good for, what possible explanation could there be for such a tactic?

 

[Cellarite]

they thought a draw was a good result with 2 home games left to play?

 

[BlueGun]

A point against the mighty City is a great achievement! ;-)

 

[Huddersfield Blue]

Re: why WERE Villareal time wasting?

They are really going to struggle in that group, and a point away would be massive for them. They didn't get it, and I'm not going to be too down about it ;)

 

[jimharri]

In their shoes I'd have done exactly the same thing. They've had a shit season so far (domestically and in the CL), so a draw at moneybags City would have been a real feather in their cap. As for one point not being much use to them, that is true. But I guess that they thought that they had very little chance of going ahead for a second time. ''Half a loaf is better than no loaf'' I suppose.

 

[Corky]

A draw and win the last 3 and they and they were through.

They were playing for a point, rather than 0 points.

Also if they drew at City and beat us at home, they would be favourites of last 32 of EUL.

 

[Bill]

i thought it was odd,i suppose we are a very big fish now, a draw with us has prestige.

put it this way scum will take a draw for sunday right now.

 

[bluemoon27]

think there keeper must have got tips off tttttim howard

 

[Rammy Blue]

Not sure if being clarkie'd here but surely it was becaue they were hoping to hit us on the break, funnily enough they had enough chances in the second half to have made it happen....

 

[IM NOT REALLY HERE]

Not sure if being clarkie'd here but surely it was becaue they were hoping to hit us on the break, funnily enough they had enough chances in the second half to have made it happen....

That explains the defensiveness but not the time-wasting.

 

[teddykgb]

Not sure if being clarkie'd here but surely it was becaue they were hoping to hit us on the break, funnily enough they had enough chances in the second half to have made it happen....

sure, they wanted to counter, but that doesn't explain the time wasting

I guess maybe it's simple enough, the point was good for them so maybe it explains the time wasting in the 90th minute, but it still put them with an uphill battle of needing to win the rest of their games to have a hope, whereas a win would have maybe given them a bit of room.

What I'm driving at is, the conventional wisdom seemed to be that the game would be very open, as both teams really needed 3 points to jump back into the thing. Instead, Villareal seemed intent to draw, even when up 1-0 they were (as someone referenced) pulling all of Everton's recent tricks. If it were just that early incident and then again really late, it might explain it, but they were time wasting right away in the 2nd half, when poaching a 2nd would have clearly been very beneficial.

 

[StMark's]

...a draw did absolutely no good for, what possible explanation could there be for such a tactic?

Every draw in the Champions League group stage earns you 400,000 euros.

Not a bad pay day and probably worth wasting a bit of time for if you have written off your chances of qualifying. They probably felt a point at City would be the best they were going to get after we equalised, still not nice to see though as you get a lot more cash than that just for getting into the group stage.