Villarreal narrowly defeated by Athletic Club as Quique Setién bemoans second half display

Villarreal suffered a setback to their European hopes on Sunday when they came off second best against Athletic Club.

The two sides went into the clash at San Mames level on points, and the Yellows were looking to impress in their first league game under Quique Setién.

In truth, they played pretty well, and the game could have gone either way, but it was decided by one defensive lapse, with Aissa Mandi caught out of position, allowing Inaki Williams to be slotted through on goal.

Williams made no mistake, scoring with a fine finish, and that proved to be the winning goal.

Athletic Club did create more chances, racking up as many as nine shots, but Villarreal largely kept them at bay, limiting the home side to just seven efforts on target.

Photo By Ricardo Larreina/Europa Press via Getty Images

By contract, Villarreal managed six shots in all and three on target, but enjoyed the lion’s share of possession.

Setién won’t be too concerned with what he saw in the Basque Country, but he was disappointed with the drop off in intensity in the second half.

“We have to analyse it,” he said after the game. “I am very happy with the first half. We have controled and we have have arrived in the rival’s area a lot. We lacked the finish.

“We have done a lot of good things. We will have to analyse the drop off that the team has had in the second half. We have been dominated by Athletic and we have not controlled the game.”