Villarreal fight back after an Espanyol opener with two fantastic goals from the striker from Tenerife
Led by a superb Ayoze Pérez, Villarreal beat Espanyol (1-2) at the RCDE Stadium. They did so by overturning an early goal from Jofre Carreras with a magnificent brace from Ayoze Pérez and -of course- two more assists from the magician Álex Baena. The win in Barcelona puts the Submarine in the Champions League places.
To take to the field at the RCDE Stadium, Marcelino opted for a starting XI with four changes from the Submarine’s last match, the home defeat against FC Barcelona (1-5). Raúl Albiol returned to the centre of defence in place of Eric Bailly, with Pape Gueye in midfield at the expense of Dani Parejo. In attack, Ilias Akhomach replaced the injured Yeremy Pino and, up front, Thierno Barry came on in place of Nicolas Pepe.
Villarreal took control of the game in the early stages. They took possession of the ball, imposing their quality in the creative phase and pinning down Espanyol, who waited carefully and tidily for a possible mistake by the Yellows to generate danger in transition.
Before the tenth minute, the Submarine had their first chance. Ayoze’s shot from Ilias’ cross was deflected by Cabrera and ended up hitting the crossbar.
There was little more to the game in the first half hour. It was full of interruptions that prevented the continuity of the game. There were physical problems and set pieces in the game. The most worrying and most serious of these occurred at the 30 minute mark. In an aerial duel, Raúl Albiol received a hard blow to the temple, which prevented him from continuing. Eric Bailly had to replace the Yellows’ captain.
Despite the constant stoppages, Marcelino’s team did not lose their concentration and made several appearances in the opponent’s area and created several dangerous chances. In the 25th minute, Ilias Akhomach made one of his own. He magically outwitted two home defenders with an elegant nutmeg on one of them. He stepped into the box, raised his head, but his pass, intended for Ayoze, did not reach the striker. It was intercepted by an Espanyoldefender.
After Raúl Albiol’s concussion, the Spanish-Moroccan was back on the attack, making a talented and mischievous challenge on Brian Oliván, who was suffering a lot from the attacks of the Yellows’ No.11. After leaving his man behind him, he passed to Thierno Barry, who was pushed by an opposing player, but failed to get a decent shot on target.
With the first half almost over, Espanyol quickly set up a promising counter-attack that would surprise Villarreal. Ayoze was forced to foul on the edge of the area to thwart the dangerous home side’s attack. In the same action, in the added time, Jofre put 1-0 on the scoreboard at the RCDE Stadium. He did so with a shot that rebounded off Comesaña before entering Conde’s goal.
It looked like the game would go into half-time with the home side in the lead. But Ayoze still had something to say. Once again in stoppage time, the striker appeared again to score the 1-1. The Tenerife-born striker scored a wonderful goal when he headed home a precise cross from Álex Baena.
In the second half, Espanyol and Villarreal swapped roles. The Pericos came out with more energy and the Yellows, with order and looking for space. Proof of this, in the 50th minute, Ilias Akhomach drove with panache down the right flank, cut inside and tried his luck with a hard shot from the edge of the area that did not find Joan García’s goal.
Before the 60-minute mark, the Submarine had a clear chance to score a second goal. Thierno Barry failed to get on the end of an exceptional cross-shot from Sergi Cardona, to whom the rebound from a free-kick by Baena fell on the opposite flank.
However, Villarreal’s second goal was not long in coming. Once again, Ayoze Pérez expertly received a pass from Álex Baena with his back to goal, turned quickly and fired a low, precise shot to the near post. He spotted the gap in Joan Garcia’s goal and slotted home from just inside the area. To turn the game around and make it 1-2 at the RCDE Stadium.
With the brace in Barcelona, the Yellows’ No.22 now has six goals in the league and is second in the race for the ‘pichichi’, only one goal behind Lewandowski.
With a quarter of an hour to go, Marcelino gave Pau Navarro the chance to replace Logan Costa, who was apparently struggling with an apparent physical problem. The young player from La Vilavella was making his debut in an official match with the first team.
In the final stretch of the game, the home side went all out for the equaliser, forcing the Yellows to defend with everything they had and rely on the occasional counter-attack to seal the game. Barry could have done so, but he failed to reach a cross from Denis Suárez, preceded by a fantastic run from the Galician midfielder himself.
The Yellows, despite suffering late on and having to dig in, came away from the RCDE Stadium with three important points.
