Villarreal 5-0 Austria Vienna
Unai Emery’s Villarreal may not be tearing things up in La Liga, but the Basque manager can always call on a European performance to ease the pressure.
The Yellow Submarine have been in fine form in the Europa Conference League and it took them less than 20 minutes to open the scoring against Austria Vienna. A work of art put together after some nifty dribbling from Samuel Chukwueze, followed by a superb touch and finish from Alex Baena at the back post.
That set the victory in motion and before half time, Francis Coquelin won the ball back and after a pass from Baena, Arnaut Danjuma got reacquainted with goalscoring for the first time this season.
The second half was a simple affair for Villarreal to manage, however Jose Luis Morales took it upon himself to entertain the Ciutat de Valencia, as he has done so many times previously for Levante.
He came on at half-time for Nicolas Jackson and treated the support to a 12-minute hat-trick as they game came to close. That included a delightful lob of the Vienna goalkeeper, as he got in behind the Austrian defence.
Villarreal maintain their perfect record in the Conference League looks like something of a formality for them now. No doubt Villarreal fans will be asking, quality of the opposition aside, why this attacking flair is not available at the weekend.