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Europa League

Apollon 0 - Villarreal 2

Apollon: Hidi; Mulder, Merkis, Charalambou, Vasiliou; Gullón, Hamdani (Kyriakou 76‘), Farley Rosa; Fabrice (Sangoy 59‘), Thuram, Papoulis (Rezek 66’). 4-3-3.
Villarreal: Sergio Asenjo; Mario Gaspar (Espinosa 46’), Gabriel, Dorado, Jaume Costa; Rukavina, Bruno (Manu Trigueros 46‘), Tomás Pina, Moi Gómez; Vietto (Uche 60‘), Gerard Moreno. 4-4-2.

Goals:
0-1. 35. Moreno. Collected long Vietto pass and chipped shot over keeper.
0-2. 39. Vietto. Fired low shot past Hidi after Jaume Costa crossed from left.

Villarreal had few problems beating Apollon 0-2 in their last group game to qualify for the knock-out stage as second in their group. Only an unlikely combination of results would have seen them lose out, but Marcelino was not taking any chances, and put out a strong line-up. For most of the first half they were on top, Vietto bringing a couple of good saves out of Hidi and Pina heading wide, and with ten minutes to go to the break Gerard Moreno opened the scoring, scooping a shot over the keeper after Vietto’s centre fell kindly for him. Five minutes later Vietto fired home the second after Jaume Costa scuffed the ball across the area, and although Asenjo had to keep out Sangoy and Rezek later on, the result was never in doubt. They still had to settle for second place though as leaders Borussia Moenchengladbach won comfortably against Zurich in the other group game.