Atletico Madrid were shocked as they fell to a fightback from Villarreal at the Vicente Calderon. After 36 minutes the hosts took the lead. It was a defence-splitting through ball of the best kind from Jose Antonio Reyes that caught the Yellow Submarine wanting as Simao cut in from the left and slipped it past Diego Lopez with his second touch.

Following the break, though, Villarreal’s pressure told. Joan Capdevila’s deep cross from the left foxed Juanito; with Sergio Asenjo hesitating over whether or not to come out, David Fuster was left with an easy finish.

Then followed a balanced period of play, but one in which a bit of quality told for the Yellow Submarine. Or, to put it another way, awful defending from Perea and Juanito allowed substitute Joseba Llorente in for an opportunistic finish right at the death as the long-suffering Atleti crowd saw the recent renaissance end in disaster.