Francis Coquelin has admitted that he felt a sense of "revenge" after Villarreal's win over Manchester United in the Europa League final last season.
Former Arsenal midfielder Coquelin faces off against Liverpool this week in the semi-final of the Champions League. The La Liga side have been punching well above their weight this year, having booked their place in the premier European competition thanks to their success last term.
Coquelin, 30, started both legs in the 2-1 aggregate win over Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals, and is expected to feature against Liverpool too. The Frenchman also played 60 minutes of the penalty shootout win over United in Gdansk last May.
And Coquelin has admitted that beating the Red Devils in the final of the Europa League was a chance for him to get revenge over their legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson after the Scot's less than complimentary comments in his autobiography.
Ferguson wrote that Coquelin “was completely out of his depth” in an understrength Arsenal side that infamously lost 8-2 to United back in 2011, adding: “I had hardly heard of him and he barely played again.”
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Coquelin has hit back over ten years later, telling RMC Sport: “It was a bit of revenge, because when I made my Arsenal debut we lost 8-2 at Old Trafford and Sir Alex Ferguson criticised me a bit in his biography, so it was a nice little turnaround to win the Europa League against them.
“Plus I think he was in the stands as well, so lifting the trophy in front of him was nice. I was looking for him, he must have seen me.”
Unai Emery will be looking to lead Villarreal to their first ever Champions League final against Liverpool, having claimed the club's first major honour last season. But the former Arsenal boss admits that the club can no longer use the element of surprise to their advantage.
“The surprise factor goes down; the first tie against Juventus the surprise factor was maybe more important,” said the Spaniard. “Against Bayern it was important, because we managed to find our own performance and we could use our weapons against another powerful rival.
“That’s not present any more but every team who is in the semi-final deserves it, we know they will respect us. We have been able to compete against big teams like Juve and Bayern, so they know it will be a tough game and will have to be 100 percent and give it all at Anfield.”
