The dispute between Juan Román Riquelme and Manuel Pellegrini

Juan Román Riquelme was a highly talented classical number 10 who played for different teams in Spain and Argentina. The 1xbet.com/en website is ready to take wagers from punters from all over the world in all these squads. The teams where Riquelme played across his career included:

• Boca Juniors;
• Barcelona;
• Villarreal;
• and Argentinos Juniors.

The player started his career in Boca. However, his excellent performances and incredible talent quickly attracted the attention of different teams in Europe. Eventually, he was transferred to Barcelona in 2002. Whenever wanting to wager on Barcelona, fans can do so on the 1xBet platform.

Difficult relationships with coaches

Riquelme’s spells in Europe were not completely successful. Also, they were highly controversial. Fans can make all football online betting on 1xBet website, which features all matches from Barcelona and Villarreal.

The relationship between Riquelme and then Barcelona coach Louis van Gaal was quite tense. Apparently, the coach argued that the midfielder wasn’t giving his best performances in training and in the matches. This led to the player being loaned out to Villarreal from 2003 until 2005. Fans can make online football betting on the 1xBet website on all the Spanish La Liga matches.

A career restart that didn’t work completely

Riquelme wanted to have a fresh restart to his career in Villarreal. The http://1xbet.com/en/line website features all the matches of the yellow submarine squad. He was a key part of the squad that was coached at that time by Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini.

Thanks to Pellegrini, Riquelme and other players of that squad, Villarreal made some good performances in the Spanish La Liga. Also, the team reached the semi-finals of the 2005-06 UEFA Champions League. This competition can also be wagered on from the great 1xBet platform.

In that semi-final, Arsenal and Villarreal faced each other first in London, on the 19th of April 2006. Here Arsenal won 1-0 with a sole goal from Kolo Touré. Both teams played again against each other one week later.

A few minutes before the end of the match, with the contest still 0-0, Riquelme had the chance to take a penalty kick. This would force the match to go into extra-time. However, Jens Lehmann made an impeccable stop, and Villarreal was eliminated.

Things would never be the same between Pellegrini and Riquelme after this occurrence. In fact, the Argentinian wasn’t even considered as a substitute for the following matches. Obviously, in public, both player and coach claimed that everything was fine. However, it was well-known that Pellegrini had the same complaints about Riquelme that van Gaal had before.