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| Cristiano Ronaldo welcomes his newest teammate, Gareth Bale who just transferred from Tottenham |
Villareal's earliest successes in this tournament are no fluke after all as it hurdled its first major test in the competition by facing La Liga giant Real Madrid. Just after kick off, Villareal proved it can go to toe to toe with the multiple champions as it shared respectable possession game against their much favored opponents.
Just 5 minutes into the game, Villareal gave Los Blancos its first scare when Cani's pass at left side goes through the legs of Pepe. This enables Jonathan Perreira to get away but he run out of space to launch his attack and Diego Lopes just collects the ball after a weak attempt by Perreira. Villareal again threatened to score in the 13th minute when Jaume Costa's pass was headed by Mario Gaspar and bounced to an open Giovanni dos Santos who fired from close range. Only Diego Lopes sliding left hand save prevented Villareal from finding the goal.
Villareal finally seized the lead in the 21st minute. Bruno pass to Jonathan Perreira inside the box. Perreira momentarily fumbled and lose the ball but Cani came from his left to collect the ball and rifled the net against the hapless Diego Lopes. Villareal is poised to add that lead in the 28th minute. Jonathan Pereira issued a wall pass to an onrushing Javier Aquino which took the Real Madrid defenders by surprise. Diego Lopes was there to deny Aquino but his sliding save deflected and Aquino fired a second shot only to miss the goal post by inches.
Real Madrid however fought back in the 38th minute. Luka Modric issued a pass to Daniel Carvajal who then raced to the right hand side and lets out a cross despite a very good Jose Dorado challenge. Carvajal's cross finds Gareth Bale who slides home the ball after beating Mario Gaspar.
Villareal missed a go ahead goal in the 54th minute. Cani finds Giovani dos Santos on the right side but who backtracks after a strong challenge by Sergio Ramos and Nacho Fernandez. Dos Santos however outsmarted the two defenders as he squeezed a pass to an onside Jonathan Pereira. Pereira then pass it to an open Jaume Costa on the left who missed from point blank range.
Real Madrid answered in the 65th minute with a counter attack. Cristiano Ronaldo received a pass from Isco on the left side. Ronaldo then skirted his defenders and passed it to Karim Benzema on the right. Benzema fired a shot which was deflected by Asenjo. The bounce however landed on Ronaldo who is now inside the penalty box. Ronaldo then smashed the ball past Mario Gaspar and Mateo Mussachio who slightly touched it. The slow ball bounced gently before the supine Sergio Asenjo kicked it as he tried to deny Madrid its second goal only for the ball to bounce into the net.
It looks like Madrid would wrap up the game for the night but Villareal, the resilient team that it is would not just simply give up. In the 70th minute, Cani receives a pass from captain Bruno Soriano. Cani then penetrated the phalanx of Madrid defenders and rifled a shot. Diego Lopes only managed to deflect the fast ball to safety but a rushing Jonathan Pereira was there to finish it with a smashing strike which Lopes barely touched as Villareal equalized for the night.
The draw saw Real Madrid and Villareal trailing two points from the pace setting Barcelona who scored a dramatic come from behind win over Sevilla in the other game.
