On the Spot Report: Villarreal 3-1 Qarabag, Europa League

As this is our quick reaction this will mainly be impressions and a lot of quick disjointed thoughts, buckle up and bear with me:

First half we looked fine. Didn’t control the ball as much as I’d like but created some chances, after the break the only real chance they had for most of it was their goal but we absolutely dominated.

Manu Trigueros played a really good game. This was the best version of him and what we’ll want to see going forward.

Kubo was pretty quiet in the first half but looked outstanding in the second, was really surprised when he came off for Yeremi Pino.

Speaking of Pino, BIG first goal for him with the first team. I thought his defending could have been better when we conceded, but he made up for it with a really well taken strike.

Paco Alcacer. What more is there to say? In the absence of Gerard Moreno the man has really, really stepped up. Four goals off the bench in two Europa League matches, today he scored with one of his trademark poaching finishes, and then finished the match with a penalty.

Overall, a good day. Had to work for the result more than we would have liked but it’s six points out of six possible in this competiton. Baena and Pino show us a bright future for academy kids, and the team overall looks capable of getting results even as we still wait for important pieces to get back.

On to Valladolid!

Edit: I have no idea how I failed to mention this initially, but we have scored THE MOST GOALS of any club in Europa League history. Crazy stuff.