Valencia were able to wreak more misery upon Villarreal as two late goals turned the tie in Los Che‘s favour as they ran out 3-1 victors at the Estadio de la Ceramica.
Goncalo Guedes opened the scoring early on after being the quickest to react to Dani Parejo‘s penalty miss, while Santi Cazorla levelled things up from the spot not long before half-time. Just when the game looked set to heading towards a draw, Valencia grabbed two late goals through Daniel Wass and Guedes.
The first goal of the game came in the sixth minute as Guedes earned a penalty for Marcelino‘s side. The Portuguese was brought down by Santiago Caceres in what was a silly foul for the Argentine to commit, especially as Guedes was not in a threatening position. Dani Parejo, who missed his spot kick against Rayo Vallecano at the weekend, stepped up and his penalty was excellently saved by Andes Fernandez, but Guedes was there to fire home the rebound.
Villarreal had an opportunity to even the scoreline in the 37th minute after Ezequiel Garay pulled Vicente Iborra to the ground. There was an opportunity for redemption for Santi Cazorla, with the 34-year-old having missed a penalty which would have salvaged a point away at Real Betis last Sunday. He powerfully fired his effort into the left-hand side of the goal, rather than down the middle like he did at the Benito Villamarin, and it paid off as he sent Neto the wrong way and made it 1-1.
Both sides seemed relatively content to head to Mestalla with the scores level, yet Wass‘ 90th minute goal changed the complete outlook of the tie. In the first minute of stoppage time, Valencia worked the ball beautifully and it made its way to Jose Gaya, who whipped in a fearsome cross that went right across the box before Wass unleashed a left-footed thunderbolt into the top right corner, leaving Andres planted to the ground. Given that was the Dane’s weaker foot, it was an incredible goal and one that will be replayed in bars across Spain on Thursday night.
The Villarreal players have been in this position on a regular basis recently; feeling like they are in with a chance of a positive result before it is snatched away from them. They faltered from a winning position against Celta Vigo and Barcelona in the league, as well as missing a crucial penalty in the 88th minute against Betis to not pick up a point, and their morale seemed to be affected by Wass‘ goal. Nevertheless, they looked to attack in the hope of scoring a second and going to Mestalla with it all to play for, albeit two away goals conceded.
Guedes did not have that intention, however, as he extinguished any optimism that the Yellow Submarine had ahead of the second leg. On the counter-attack, Denis Cheryshev, on loan at Valencia from Villarreal, had come on from the bench and he showed his electric pace as he galloped down the left wing before brilliantly picking out Guedes, whose shot was hit into the ground and bounced over the despairing Andres.
The two sides will meet at Mestalla next Thursday with Valencia having three away goals and, given Villarreal‘s lack of confidence at present, the odds of them turning things around seem slim. But, as we have seen in Europe so often before, anything can happen in a second leg; we are simply at the half-time stage of the tie.
