Villarreal win the second match against Como-Cagliari with a Martí Prera goal

On day one of TST, Villarreal showed character to fight back after a 3-4 loss over North Carolina FC, with a heroic 2-1 win over Como-Cagliari.

Villarreal kicked off their participation in TST with a 3-4 loss against North Carolina FC, the hosts of the tournament.

Despite starting well, with good chances for Giuseppe Rossi and David Fuster, with both being denied by the goalkeeper, Villarreal went behind in the fourth minute after North Carolina scored with their first attack of the match through Farber.

Villarreal continued to dominate, and a Martí Prera cross was deflected into his own net by Elizondo, a North Carolina defender, for the equaliser after 12 minutes.

The game went into the break all square.

Villarreal took the lead in the second half atfer Verza was fouled in the box. Verza stepped up to power the penalty home.

With five minutes to go, Chavez conceded a penalty, which was converted by Nazmi Albadawi, to make it 2-2, before NCFC scored a header late on  through Farber’s header to make a target score of 4 at the end of 40 minutes.

In target time Xisco Nadal scored a fantastic free-kick, but as it went down to 4v4, Villarreal were caught up the field as NCFC scored the fourth with Albadawi netting on the break.

Starting line-up: Rives, Galas, Murillo Jr., Fuster, Marcos Senna, Héctor Font and Rossi

Also played: Verza, A. Ramos, Xisco Nadal, Martí Prera, O. Romero, Chavez, Powell and Hinojosa.

Goals: Farber (0-1, m.4), Elizondo OG (1-1, m.12), Verza (p) (2-1, m.23), Albadawi (p) (2-2, m.35), Farber (2-3, m.37), Nadal (3-3, m. 50), Albadawi (3-4, m.53).

After the loss, Villarreal knew a win in their afternoon match against a young Como-Cagliari side would keep them alive in the group.

The Italians dominated the ball early on, with Estevan Vazquez looking strong at goal and making some great saves early on.

But Xisco Nadal, fresh from his wonder goal earlier on in the day, came off the bench to show his class on the ball. Wining it back on the halfway line, he ran straight to goal and finished calmly into the bottom corner to give the Submarine the lead after eight minutes.

Despite the goal, Como-Cagliari continued dominating the ball, but Vazquez stayed strong in the goal to keep Villarreal ahead at the break.

Just after half-time, Giuseppe Mazzaglia equalised for the Italian side, and it looked like Villarreal could suffer a second consecutive loss.

But the Yellows, having learned from the first match, knew how to control the game, and with Alberto Ramos and Hinojosa linking defence to attack quickly looked dangerous.

With the end of normal time and the game at 1-1, the target score was 2.

Martí Prera and Xisco Nadal were the main threats up front, and as the game ended up 4v4, Martí Prera thought he won, but smashed the ball against the crossbar.

Just a minute later, he didn’t miss, after being put through on goal by Oscar Romero, bringing euphoria to the Villarreal team to get their first win of the tournament.

Starting line-up: Vazquez, Murillo Jr, Galas, Hinojosa, Marcos Senna, O. Romero and Rossi.

Also played: Verza, Xisco Nadal, A. Ramos, Martí Prera, Fuster, Powell, Font, E. Romero, Powell, Chavez.

Goals: Xisco Nadal (1-0, m.8), Mazzaglia (1-1, m.22) and Martí Prera (2-1, m.54).

On Thursday, Villarreal face City Soccer Society in their last Group J match, at 7pm Spanish time.

Watch it here.