Villarreal beat RC Deportivo de La Coruña and win their ticket to Europe for the fifth consecutive season
What a game of football! Villarreal played to their best at the Riazor stadium to beat RC Deportivo de La Coruña and guarantee, at least, sixth place in the league and UEFA Europa League football for next season, for the fifth consecutive year. Goals by Samu Castillejo (2), Manu Trigueros and Denis Cheryshev gave the Yellow Submarine the crucial victory, not to mention the magician that is Pablo Fornals providing two assists, which takes him to 12 for the season joint with Messi as the players with the highest number of assists in LaLiga.
A stunning start. Villarreal dictated the tempo in the opening minutes, dominating possession and pinning Deportivo back into their half. Thus the Submarine’s opener came very early on. Fantastic individual skill by Samu Castillejo was all it took. The Yellow number 10 got away from Luisinho on the edge of the box and sent a curling strike into the far top corner of Rubén’s goal (0-1). The match started firmly in Villarreal’s favour.
Not long after, Sergio Asenjo was called into action to make a great stop at the other end. The Villarreal goalkeeper saved the Submarine with quick reflexes to keep out a header by Borja Valle at the back post.
After the first quarter of an hour of play, the match began to open up and it was end to end stuff at the Riazor. Both teams hunting down their opponents’ goal in earnest. Asenjo made another fine save to keep out Lucas’ volley and keep the Yellows in the lead and right after, Fornals tried his luck from long range but Rubén was equal to it.
The Yellows were piling on the pressure, not letting the locals out of their half. On the half an hour mark, Trigueros won the ball back and started a counterattack. The midfielder played the ball out wide to Fornals and continued his run into the box. From there, the Yellow number 8 showed just why he has the most assists in the league as he put a pinpoint cross into the box for Trigueros to head home (0-2).
Just before the half time whistle, Pablo Fornals worked his magic again, playing a brilliant ball over the blue-and-white back line for Samu Castillejo to run on to. Sure enough, the Yellow number 10 was on the same wavelength and brought down Fornals’ pass with great control and knocked the ball past Rubén from close range (0-3). Qualification for European football was looking good at the break.
In the second half, despite being up by three goals, Villarreal did not drop the intensity. Just after the restart, Raba had a great chance to score the fourth but his shot was blocked. Then, in the 60th minute, Borja Valle pulled one back for the home side (1-3). In the final minutes of the game the locals surprisingly struck again, Valle getting his second of the match (2-3), but it was too little too late for Deportivo. Villarreal did not suffer at the end though, instead they steamrolled their way to the final whistle, scoring a fourth in injury time. It was Cheryshev who bagged the final, decisive goal of the game (2-4).
Villarreal will return to Europe next season. Endavant!
Lineups:
RC Deportivo: Rubén; Juanfran (Mujaid, m. 74), Albentosa, Navarro, Luisinho; Guilherme (Bakkali, m. 45), Krohn-Delhi, Fede Valverde (Mosquera, m. 66), Borja Valle; Adrián and Lucas.
Villarreal CF: Asenjo; Mario, Álvaro, Víctor Ruiz, Jaume Costa; Rodrigo, Trigueros (Javi Fuego, m. 86), Castillejo (Cheryshev, m. 72), Raba (Sansone, m. 60), Fornals; and Bacca.
Goals: 0-1. Min. 1: S. Castillejo. 0-2. Min. 30: Trigueros. 0-3. Min. 44: S. Castillejo. 1-3. Min. 58: Borja Valle. 2-3. Min. 87: B. Valle. 2-4. Min. 91: Cheryshev.
Referee: Hernández Hernández. Cautioned: Guilheme, Borja Valle and Albentosa for Deportivo.
Match Information: Match corresponding to Matchday 37 in the LaLiga Santander between RC Deportivo and Villarreal CF played at the Estadio de Riazor in front of 12,885 spectators.
