As Juventus strolled to a historic opening goal by Dusan Vlahovic after 33 seconds, Villarreal took an early hit, but eventually dragged themselves out with the leveler after half-time. Dani Parejo came to the Yellow Submarines’ rescue with a 66th minute strike to end the game on equal terms.
The result means that the two-legged tie is very well in the balance, given the away goal rule no longer counts.
Villarreal coach Unai Emery believes his side weren’t thrown off by Vlahovic’s early debut goal in the competition.
“We weren’t scared and showed maturity as a collective unit. We fought back and had chances to equalize in the first half. The draw leaves me dissatisfied because we wanted more,” he said in his post-match press conference (via MARCA).
He looks forward to facing he Turin giants once again a two fortnights later at the Allianz Stadium.
“We must go to Turin and win. There are 90 minutes left in the tie. For now, we have to focus on La Liga, and then we’ll focus on the Juventus game. We’ll see how many players we recover and try to ensure we don’t lose any more before then,” he commented.
Villarreal seek to enter the last eight stage of the tournament for the first time since the 2008/09 season, when they were eliminated by Arsenal. Juventus welcome the Europa League winners on March 16 for the decisive second leg.