Villarreal were comfortable 2-0 winners at Atletico Madrid on Sunday.
The Yellow Submarine managed the game superbly in a masterclass from Unai Emery. Perhaps the success of this could best be seen in the way the home side lost their discipline at the end, with Nahuel Molina seeing red and others losing their cool.
It was Molina, in fact, who was partly at fault for the opening goal when Yeremi Pino latched onto his botched clearance and finished low and hard from the edge of the six-yard box.
Villarreal looked to be seeing the game out more or less comfortably after Yeremi’s 74th minute strike, but there were more fireworks to come.
The biggest moment of danger for Emery’s side came when Matheus Cunha’s header hit the bar and then Geronimo Rulli had to pull off a wonder save to claw Yannick Carrasco’s header away on the rebound.
As Atleti ran out of time and options, Molina was red carded for petulantly pushing and then aggressively elbowing Alex Baena.
Gerard Moreno then sealed the win deep into added time after Alfonso Pedraza fed him on the counter. The Spanish international drilled home low across goal with his left to ensure the points travelled back to the Estadio de la Ceramica.
