Toledo 0-3 Villarreal: Copa del Rey first leg

Villarreal took care of Toledo, 3-0 in the first leg of their Round of 32 Copa del Rey matchup. The goals came in the 15th minute (an own goal, but set up by Denis Cheryshev with an onrushing Santos Borré ready to tap home), the 20th (Bakambu, set up by Cheryshev) and the 82nd (Samu Castillejo, set up by Rodri).

Toledo were up for the challenge and took the game to Villarreal early, but had no answer for our counterattacks. Ex-Villarreal canterano Pablo Gonzalez and young Ghanian striker Owusu Kwabena were the best players for the home side, and their keeper Manolo made a couple of good saves to keep the score down.

For Villarreal, Denis Cheryshev and Trigueros were excellent in the first half, Bakambu worked hard all game too. And Mariano Barbosa had a couple of good stops, too.

The return leg, in El Madrigal on December 20, should hopefully be a foregone conclusion since Toledo would need to win 4-0 to progress. Wikipedia doesn’t have a lot of detail on the Copa del Rey, but I suspect this may be our biggest away win ever in the competition; it certainly is our biggest in the last 20 years.

Overall, Villarreal did what it needed to do. Endavant!