Down to ten men, Villarreal score in stoppage time to beat Valencia 1-2 at the Mestalla

Villarreal won at the Mestalla with ten men and the game's last kick, Georges Mikautadze turning in an Alberto Moleiro cross six minutes into stoppage time to complete a 1-2 comeback against Valencia. Both substitutes had been on the pitch barely twenty minutes. Pape Gueye's 79th-minute red card for Villarreal should have made the closing stages harder, not easier, but it was Valencia who blinked first.

A penalty, a header, and a winner from the bench

Pepelu had put Valencia ahead from the penalty spot on 38 minutes, and the home side held that lead for more than half an hour before Alex Freeman headed in a Sergi Cardona cross on 69 to make it 1-1. Villarreal kept pushing even after Gueye's dismissal, and substitutes Mikautadze and Moleiro — on together since the hour mark — combined for the winner with the game almost gone, in the sixth added minute.

Two red cards, eighteen fouls, one battered Valencia defence

Discipline defined the second half. Gueye's red card arrived on 79 minutes for Villarreal, and Valencia ended with ten men themselves when substitute Harvey Elliott picked up two late yellow cards in the same 89th minute. Valencia committed 18 fouls to Villarreal's nine, more than double, yet it was the away side who had the ball for longer (61.5% of possession) and finished with more corners, nine to six.

Match facts

• 38' — Pepelu (Valencia), penalty
• 69' — Alex Freeman (Villarreal), assist Sergi Cardona
• 90'+6' — Georges Mikautadze (Villarreal), assist Alberto Moleiro

Line-ups

Valencia played a 4-4-2 with Stole Dimitrievski in goal, Justin de Haas, César Tárrega, José Gayà and Pablo Maffeo across the back, Pepelu and Guido Rodríguez central, and Luis Rioja, David Otorbi, Arnaut Danjuma and Javier Guerra further forward. Filip Ugrinic, Harvey Elliott, Hugo Duro, Arnau Martínez and Dani Raba came off the bench. Villarreal matched the shape with Péter Gulácsi behind Renato Veiga, Juan Foyth, Alex Freeman and Santiago Mouriño, Pape Gueye and Carlos Macià in midfield, and Tajon Buchanan, Ilias Akhomach, Ayoze Pérez and Gerard Moreno in attack. Pau Navarro, Georges Mikautadze, Santi Comesaña, Alberto Moleiro and Sergi Cardona were the five introduced during the match — four of them involved in the two goals that turned the result.

Villarreal's bench keeps delivering

Villarreal's last five matches across all competitions had read win, loss, win, draw, loss — a 3-1 win over Levante and a 3-1 win over Napoli in the Champions League either side of a 0-1 defeat at Real Madrid, a 0-0 draw with Elche and then a 4-3 Champions League defeat away at Liverpool four days before this one. Winning away from home with ten men, through two players who had been on the pitch for barely twenty minutes, fits a pattern of an inconsistent but occasionally resilient autumn.

Valencia's problems are not going away

For Valencia, this was a sixth defeat in nine league games and a third in their last five, a run that has them anchored near the bottom of the table all season. They led this one for 31 minutes and still found a way to lose it, conceding in the same stretch — 69th to 90+6th minute — in which they also lost a man to a second yellow card.

What's next

The result lifts Villarreal to 12 points, into the top half of the table, while Valencia stay on six points and in the relegation zone — a position the defeat does nothing to ease, with a goal difference now down to minus 10.