Real Betis come from behind to beat Villarreal 2-1 and climb into third

Villarreal led for ten minutes at the Estadio de la Cerámica on Monday night, and it wasn't enough. Gerard Moreno put the hosts ahead in the 29th minute, but Real Betis answered in kind before the break — Cucho Hernández levelling in the 39th and Natan turning the game around in the 43rd — and held on for a 2-1 win that stretched Villarreal's winless run to six games in all competitions.

Three goals in fourteen minutes

The match had been goalless and cagey for half an hour before it burst into life. Gerard Moreno turned in a low cross to send the home crowd into a rare bit of noise, but Betis needed only ten minutes to reply through Cucho Hernández, and four minutes after that Natan headed home to make it 2-1 right on the stroke of half-time. Neither side scored again in the second half, leaving referee Francisco José Hernández Maeso to hand out a single caution, to Villarreal's Renato Veiga in the 84th minute, before blowing for full time in front of 18,267 fans.

Score by half

Line-ups

Villarreal lined up in a 4-4-2 with Gulácsi in goal behind Pau Navarro, C. Romero, Renato Veiga and Mouriño, Pepe, Santi Comesaña, Gueye and Buchanan across midfield, and Gerard Moreno partnering Mikautadze up front. Real Betis set up in a 4-2-3-1: Álvaro Valles in goal, Héctor Bellerín, Marc Bartra, Natan and Fran García in defence, Marc Roca and Isco holding, and Pablo Fornals, Abde Ezzalzouli and Rodrigo Riquelme supporting Cucho Hernández.

Two clubs going in opposite directions

This was Villarreal's sixth game without a win across all competitions. They had opened the league campaign with back-to-back draws, away at Racing Santander and Atlético Madrid, before losing back-to-back home games to Alavés and Deportivo La Coruña, and they were beaten 3-2 by Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League only six days earlier. Cucho Hernández's leveller and Natan's winner mean Villarreal are still without a single victory in LaLiga this season, five games in.

Real Betis, by contrast, arrived on the back of four wins in five in all competitions, including a 1-0 win over Real Madrid at the Benito Villamarín on matchday 4 and a 3-2 away win at Lille in the Champions League in midweek. Manuel Pellegrini's side had already shown they could beat the biggest names in Spanish football this season; taking three points off a struggling Villarreal, even after falling behind, kept that run going.

A return to Villarreal for Pellegrini

The result also had a personal thread to it. Manuel Pellegrini managed Villarreal for three seasons before leaving to take over at Real Betis, and he returned to the Estadio de la Cerámica with his new club chasing a result his former one badly needed. It was Pellegrini's side that came out on top, extending Villarreal's wait for a first LaLiga win of the campaign.

Where it leaves the table

This was the last fixture of matchday 5 to be played, and it settles the round. Real Betis's fourth win in five moves them to 12 points — level with second-placed Real Madrid, but behind them on goal difference — which puts Pellegrini's side third, their best position of the season so far and comfortably inside the top five that carry Champions League places for Spain this season. Villarreal stay on two points from five games, still 17th and without a win, sitting just one place and level on points with 18th-placed Celta Vigo, who occupy the first relegation spot. The gap between mid-table comfort and the drop zone, five rounds in, is that thin for Villarreal.

What's next

Villarreal will look to end their winless run in their next league fixture, while Real Betis — now with five wins in their last six games across all competitions — take that form into the following round. For Pellegrini, beating the club he once managed is the kind of result that keeps Betis's early-season surge looking like more than a hot streak.