Villarreal And Getafe Share Six Goal Thriller

Villarreal and Getafe played out an incredibly entertaining encounter at El Madrigal, sharing the points in a 3-3 draw.

Villarreal's injury problems meant that the young American striker Jozy Altidore earned a start up front. Otherwise, the Yellow Submarines lined up as expected.

Getafe, meanwhile, made only one change to the side that beat Real Madrid last weekend, bringing Ikechukwu Uche in for Roberto Soldado.

First Half

Villarreal started brightly, dominating the early stages against their visitors, who were taking their time getting used to the surroundings. Then, after nine minutes of almost total domination by the home side, Getafe took the lead completeley against the run of play.

With their first real attack of the game, Getafe found success after Uche's run down the right resulted in a cross that was headed on to Esteban Granero by Juan Albin. There was still plenty of work to do, but the midfielder made it look easy, as he sent an immaculate looping volley in to the top left corner of the net. Suddenly, painful memories of Villarreal's last home match, a 3-0 loss to Valladolid, came flooding back at El Madrigal.

To their credit, Villarreal continued to attack, and were unlucky not to equalise on 15 minutes, Diego Godin's header from a corner hitting the crossbar. As they were ruing their misfortune, Getafe executed yet another perfect counter-attack, and increased their tally.

Yet again it was a menacing cross that did the damage; this time, Cosmin Contra was the provider as he set up Jaime Gavilan at the far post, and he duly smashed it across Diego López and into the net. It was a dream start for Getafe, who looked every bit as dangerous as the side that dismantled Real Madrid on the counter last week.

Understandably, Villarreal were stunned, and errors started to creep in to their all too predictable game. Despite doing most of the defending, Getafe still looked the most likely to score. The home side did create a few decent chances though. First, Jozy Altidore's header from a Javi Venta cross only just missed the target, and minutes later a sublime Giuseppe Rossi ball across the six-yard box somehow managed to evade everyone.

It was almost as if Getafe were teasing Villarreal, inviting them on to attack, before taking the ball and rampaging ahead on the counter. With barely half-an-hour gone, they executed another devastating break to create a scarcely credible 0-3 score line.

Jaime Gavilan found Javier Casquero on the edge of the box, and the midfielder unleashed a trademark strike that sneaked under Diego López. Villarreal's defence was an absolute shambles, and Pascal Cygan wasn't even playing.

Things were only getting worse for the home team, as Javi Venta, one of their few bright sparks on the night, was forced off due to injury towards the end of the first half. The faces around El Madrigal looked resigned to defeat, even before the half-time whistle.

There were no further incidents in the first half, as Villarreal went into the break facing the prospect of yet another bizarre home defeat.

Second Half

Getafe came out for the second half with Rafa having replaced Mario due to a suspected injury, although the defender had already picked up a yellow card. Unlike their last home game, Villarreal appeared to come out for the second half with a genuine intent to rescue the situation. Roberto Abbondanzieri had to be at his absolute best to keep out two efforts from Sebastian Eguren and Robert Pires. On 55 minutes, however, there was nothing he could do to stop Pires scoring in bizarre fashion.

Another acrobatic save from 'El Pato', this time from an Altidore header, looked to have rescued the situation, but the resulting goalmouth scramble somehow ended up with the ball in the back of the net. Cazorla's shot was also saved, but it rebounded off Pires and into the net.

Villarreal were now attacking with renewed confidence, and on the hour Juan Capdevila missed an incredibly easy chance to pull another goal back. Marcos Senna's free-kick found its way to the left-back, but he could only place it tamely into the side netting with the goal gaping.

Getafe, however, were still mounting the odd dangerous counter, although with considerably less regularity than in the first half. Villarreal sensed a comeback, but their final ball consistently let them down. Guiseppe Rossi sent a few shots wide, but Abbondanzieri was not being threatened enough.

With 13 minutes left, Pellegrini threw Nihat on for Marcos Senna, and the Turkish international almost had an immediate impact, but his lob hit the side-netting. It looked increasingly as though Villarreal's efforts would be in vain, but then, with two minutes to go, Sebastian Eguren gave them renewed hope, when he executed a simple finish at the far post, after a free-kick from Ibagaza.

The unthinkable was now a real possibility, and it soon became reality, when Villarreal scored again, virtually straight after the kick off. More poor defending from Getafe gifted the ball to Rossi, who finished with style into the bottom right-hand corner. Somehow, Villarreal had pulled three goals back, and the score was now 3-3 with five minutes remaining.

All of a sudden, the Yellow Submarines looked like the only side who could win it, and on 90 minutes, Rossi should have sealed the deal. Eguren released the Italian, but he could only shoot inches wide when clean through on goal. It was the final chance of the match, and one that, if taken, would have given Villarreal a most dramatic victory.

As it was, the point will probably feel like a victory to Manuel Pellegrini's men, who went in to half-time 3-0 down at home. Getafe, meanwhile, will be left to wonder what might have been.

Villarreal 3-3 Getafe
Pires 55 Granero 9
Eguren 83 Gavilan 17
Rossi 85 Casquero 30

Villarreal: Diego López - Javi Venta (Angel 42), Gonzalo, Godin, Capdevila - Senna (Nihat 77), Eguren - Cazorla, Pires (Ibagaza 65) - Rossi, Altidore

Getafe: Abbondanzieri - Contra, Cata Diaz, Mario (Rafa 45), Licht - Polanski, Casquero, Granero (Cortes 87), Gavilan - Albin, Uche (Soldado 81)

Yellow Cards: Casquero 28, Mario 35, Gavilan 52, Gonzalo 58

Arjun Miglani, Goal.com



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