Ghost away end! Just 39 Villarreal fans will follow their team to Dortmund
The famous Yellow Wall will face a nearly empty away corner tonight: just 39 Villarreal supporters have bought tickets for the trip to Dortmund.
Details: Villarreal informed Borussia Dortmund they would require almost none of their allocated away tickets for tonight's Champions League league phase opener at Signal Iduna Park, with only 39 sold. It is a staggering number for a club that won the Europa League five years ago and sits in Europe's top competition.
The context makes the boycott look like a statement. Villarreal have started the season disastrously, winless after four La Liga matches, sitting 16th and fresh from a painful 3-2 home defeat to Deportivo in which they blew a late lead. Fans' patience with the project is clearly wearing thin, and a midweek trip to Germany offers little temptation while the Yellow Submarine is taking on water at home. For Dortmund, the match is already tricky on the pitch with Bensebaini, Schlotterbeck and Can among those out, but the atmosphere stakes just tilted entirely their way: 80,000 home voices against an away section you could fit in a bus.
It's worth noting that Dortmund thrashed Villarreal 4-0 when the sides last met in this competition back in November, another memory the absent fans probably did not want to relive.
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Miguel Solomons
Dailysports's expert
