On The Spot Report: Brave Villarreal Beaten 2:1 by Barcelona as Europa League Looms

Villarreal came out with a strong performance against Barcelona. One stray tackle from Trigueros lead to a harsh red card to ruin the afternoon for the Yellow Submarine

26 minutes in against the run of play Villarreal struck first. With a stunning through ball from Pau Torres. He split the Barcelona defence in two finding a spriting Samu Chukwueze. With a quick bit of skill, Samu found himself through on goal. Skipping past Ter Stegen he put the ball into the back of the net.

2 minutes later Barca stuck back with a stunning goal. Mingueza who had a torrid game sent a beautiful through ball to the Griezmann. The Frenchmen found himself trapped on the left-hand side. With a cheeky stunning lob, the ball fell into the bottom left-hand corner.

Villarreal was slowly getting into the game as Barca chances began to lessen. Disaster struck in the 35th minute. In what seemed a harmless situation Griezmann took advantage of Foyth’s misjudgement. The argentine without looking up, played the ball back to Asenjo. The Frenchmen sprinted across and latched onto the ball and slotted it into the back of the net 2:1.

In the second half Emery had clearly rattled his players for being soo sloppy. In the second half, Villarreal tightened up and played a higher line. This clearly foxed Barca as it led to several chances for Villarreal.

65 minutes in Villarreal’s match was over. Manu Trigueros was given a red card. The Villarreal star lost control of the ball. As he stretched two-footed he caught Messi. It was not a malicious challenge as he got the ball first but the referee felt otherwise.

The final half of the game Villarreal held on despite facing what very few now regard as the ‘best side in the world”. If the Yellow Submarine plays like that on Thursday the Europa League sounds like a realistic dream for Yellow fans!