The first time Fernando Roig watched Villarreal play as their president, he sat in the stand at a tiny whitewashed ground that had concrete fever and was half empty. It was a Sunday night in the second division, they lost 3-0 to Badajoz, and he didn’t enjoy it much. But then, he doesn’t ever enjoy it much.
Even on Tuesday at Anfield, he will not: into his 30th year, the longest presidency in Europe, that is about the only thing that hasn’t changed. More than 1,000 games and still it happens. It’s worse: I get worried, very anxious,” he says.
This will be the fifth time we have faced them, the third at Anfield. The other two were European semi-finals. I’ll watch the morning training session, travel with the team.
We’ll go and eat; everywhere we go we get treated very well and we treat them well back. The next day I’ll watch the under-19s in the morning, that I do like. And then the game, which I don’t.
Then we’ll fly back here very, very late. It’s very stressful.” It is the morning after Villarreal have beaten Napoli in the Champions Leagueand Roig is in an office at the headquarters of Pamesa, the ceramics company he owns, on the edge of town. He is better now, the tension subsided.
They needed that victory, their first in the competition going back to before they last faced Liverpool, in the 2022 semi-final, and, besides, he is always better the next day. A cabinet holds pictures, mementoes, footballs, a basketball too. Three paintings by his wife, Elena Negueroles, fill the far wall.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
