Villarreal (Spain), Oct 26 (IANS) Villarreal crushed Rapid Vienna 5-0 in a Europa League match to post their first home victory of the season in all competitions.
It was also the Spanish club’s first win of the Europa League campaign after two draws, bringing their point total to 5 and boosting Villarreal’s chances of advancing out of Group G, reports Efe news.
The hosts did not get off to a great start here on Thursday night, but the Austrian side served up gifts in the form of defensive lapses and Villarreal’s Karl Toko Ekambi drew jeers from the home crowd after squandering the third in a series of golden opportunities to score.
Villarreal broke the deadlock in the 26th minute when the Rapid goalkeeper stopped an Ekambi shot only for the rebound to go to Pablo Fornals, who fired in from the far post.
Fornals returned the favour four minutes later, assisting on Ekambi’s goal to make it 2-0.
The 3-0 came in the final minute of the first half in the form of an own goal charged to Rapid’s Mateo Barac, who redirected Ekambi’s header into the visitors’ net.
Dani Raba put Villarreal ahead 4-0 in the 63rd minute to finish off a great play involving Jaume Costa and Ekambi.
Gerard Moreno completed the rout with a goal in the 85th minute after the hosts went down to 10 men with Costa’s expulsion for a second yellow card.
–IANS
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