Villarreal stay in La Liga top-four race with 3-1 win over Celta Vigo
Villarreal’s late charge for a top-four La Liga finish got back on track in midweek, with a 4-2 win against Espanyol showing the true extent of their attacking prowess.
A leading light in that triumph, Jackson started as he left off on Thursday night, making a yard for himself after receiving a killer pass from Yeremy Pino inside the box and finding the bottom-right corner inside the opening two minutes.
A VAR review followed, but referee Pablo Gonzalez Fuertes ruled the goal to be legitimate, giving Villarreal a dream start and leaving Celta hardly knowing what had hit them.
The visitors were given a quick reminder just nine minutes later as another slicing through-ball, this time from Giovani Lo Celso, saw Jackson saunter through and slide home to double his and his team's tally.
Things nearly got even worse for the away side before the break when Oscar Rodríguez's foul just inside the box gift-wrapped Villarreal a penalty. However, Dani Parejo decided to be slightly too clever, opting to chip down the middle and firing over.
Given a new lease of life, Celta halved the deficit just as the half-hour mark loomed, when a long ball found Franco Cervi, whose cutback from the left flank found Jorgen Strand Larsen via a yellow shirt, and the Norwegian fired low into the corner for 2-1.
A pulsating end-to-end climax to the first half followed, with several chances going begging and Larsen bringing out the best in a now worried-looking Pepe Reina, leaving all in attendance expecting more of the same after the interval.
There were no clear-cut second-half chances by the hour mark, however, and that opened the door for Carlos Carvalhal to play his usual trump card, bringing on evergreen talisman Iago Aspas.
But even he was unable to make an impact, and Villarreal finally ended the match as a contest bang on 70 minutes, as a searing diagonal ball found Pino in space on the left side of the box. Ever the visionary, he centred to an onrushing Ramon Terrats, who side-footed low beyond a stranded Ivan Villar to seal the points with his maiden senior-level goal.
Despite staying stuck on just one La Liga clean sheet at home to a club starting this round in the bottom half of the standings, Villarreal were well worth a win that keeps fourth-placed Real Sociedad firmly in their sights.
Meanwhile, Celta still have hope of getting just a second top-half finish in seven seasons, though their defence needs a lot of tweaking as another nondescript campaign in Galicia limps to a close.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Nicolas Jackson (Villarreal)