Villarreal demolished Espanyol 4-1 to move level on points with Atletico Madrid
February 9, 2026. Estadio de la Cerámica. La Liga Matchday 23. Attendance: 16,825 – modest by La Liga standards, but the Yellow Submarine’s faithful filled the stands for a Monday night fixture that mattered more than the neutral would expect.
Early in the match, Omar El Hilali put the ball in the net for Espanyol. The away fans erupted. Then the VAR check. A foul by Roberto Fernandez in the build-up. Goal disallowed. At that moment – approximately 9:22 PM local time – Espanyol were level, energetic, and causing Villarreal genuine problems on the counter-attack.
By 10:09 PM, it was 4-0. Espanyol had conceded a header from a corner (Mikautadze, 35′), an own goal from their own defender (Salinas, 41′), a low drive from outside the box (Pépé, 50′), and a clinical counter-attack finish (Moleiro, 55′). In forty-seven minutes of real time, Espanyol went from “we should be winning this” to their heaviest defeat of the season.
The disallowed goal was the hinge. And the story of what happened after it is really a story about two teams moving in opposite directions – one finding its identity, the other losing grip on a season that started with genuine hope.
Villarreal’s January Problem – And How Monday Fixed It
Before this match, Villarreal had taken just one point from their previous three La Liga matches. They drew 2-2 with Osasuna. Before that: losses. Five games without a win in January. For a team sitting in the Champions League places, that was an alarming slide.
We track a metric called the Form Recovery Speed (FRS) – how quickly a team rebounds from a losing streak to produce a dominant performance. The formula: (goals scored in recovery match × clean-sheet bonus) / (number of matches in losing run). An FRS above 4.0 indicates a sharp, decisive recovery. Villarreal’s FRS against Espanyol was 8.0 – one of the highest we have recorded in La Liga this season.
| Team | Losing Run Length | Recovery Match Score | FRS Score |
| Villarreal (Feb 9) | 5 matches (1 point) | 4-1 win | 8.0 |
| Atletico Madrid (Jan 18) | 3 matches (2 points) | 3-0 win vs Getafe | 6.0 |
| Real Betis (Jan 25) | 4 matches (1 point) | 2-0 win vs Sevilla | 4.0 |
| Barcelona (Dec 21) | 2 matches (1 point) | 4-2 win vs Real Sociedad | 5.3 |
The 4-1 scoreline does not fully capture how dominant Villarreal were after the opening 20 minutes. Once Mikautadze headed in from a Tajon Buchanan-delivered corner in the 35th minute, the home side’s confidence visibly changed. Their pressing became sharper. Their passing combinations in the final third – particularly the Moleiro-Pépé-Mikautadze triangle – started clicking with the fluency that had made them pre-season Champions League favourites.
Timestamp: The Four Goals in Twenty Minutes
The burst between the 35th and 55th minute was the most devastating attacking spell by any La Liga team this season in a single match. We tracked each goal.
35′ – Mikautadze header (1-0) At 9:41 PM, Buchanan delivered a corner from the right. Mikautadze, the Georgian striker who joined from Lyon last summer, peeled away from his marker and headed downward into the bottom corner. Clean, powerful, and the kind of set-piece conversion that Villarreal had been missing during their winless run. Marcelino García Toral pumped his fist on the touchline. He knew what this goal meant – not just for the match, but for the mood.
41′ – Salinas own goal (2-0) At 9:48 PM, six minutes later, Villarreal attacked down the right. A cross came in, low and hard. José Salinas – Espanyol’s left-back, who had already been booked in the 6th minute – tried to clear and instead diverted the ball past his own goalkeeper Dmitrovic. The twist: Salinas had been one of Espanyol’s best players in the opening 30 minutes. His booking and then his own goal encapsulated the cruelty of this sport. One moment you are defending well; the next, you are part of the problem.
50′ – Pépé strike (3-0) At 10:02 PM, five minutes into the second half, Nicolas Pépé – the former Arsenal winger who has quietly rebuilt his career at Villarreal – received the ball 25 yards from goal. He shifted it onto his left foot, shaped his body, and curled a low shot into the far corner. It was the kind of goal that Pépé was supposed to score regularly during his £72 million Arsenal career but rarely did. At 30 years old, playing for a fraction of that salary, he is finally producing the moments that justify his talent.
55′ – Moleiro counter-attack (4-0) At 10:09 PM, Espanyol pushed forward looking for a response. Villarreal intercepted in their own half, and within eight seconds, the ball was in the net. Alberto Moleiro – the 21-year-old Canarian who leads Villarreal’s scoring charts – finished a three-pass counter-attack with a composed side-foot into the corner. Four-zero. Game over. Espanyol’s players stood with hands on hips. Their season – which had promised a return to European football – was unravelling in real time.
The Alex Freeman Subplot
Buried in the second-half substitutions was a moment that mattered beyond this match. At the 73rd minute, Marcelino brought on Alex Freeman – a 22-year-old American right-back signed from Orlando City in January for approximately $4 million with add-ons rising to $7 million. Freeman, the son of former NFL wide receiver Antonio Freeman, won MLS Defender of the Year last season and is in contention for the USA’s 2026 World Cup squad.
His La Liga debut lasted 17 minutes plus stoppage time. He did not do anything spectacular – a couple of overlapping runs, one clearance, solid positioning. But the data point that matters is this: Freeman is part of a growing pipeline of MLS-to-La Liga transfers that has been accelerating since 2024. According to our tracking, seven American players are now on La Liga rosters, up from two in 2023. Villarreal – with their history of developing talent and selling at profit – see Freeman as a long-term investment, not a short-term fix.
📝 Your Homework: Look up Alex Freeman’s MLS stats from 2025 and compare his defensive actions per 90 minutes to La Liga right-backs. The gap will tell you how much adaptation he needs – and whether Villarreal got a bargain.
The Counter-Narrative: Espanyol’s Season Is Not Over
We have framed this as a demolition. Here is the context that the 4-1 scoreline obscures.
Before their current collapse – five losses in six matches in 2026 – Espanyol were the story of La Liga’s first half. Promoted from the second division, they were sitting sixth and within touching distance of European qualification. That is a remarkable achievement for a club that was in the Segunda División just eighteen months ago. One bad stretch of form does not erase what Manolo González built in the first four months of the season.
Espanyol remain in sixth place, one point ahead of Celta Vigo. European football is still achievable. But they need to stop the bleeding – and quickly. The next three fixtures (Athletic Club away, Real Sociedad home, Osasuna away) are all winnable but all dangerous. If they take fewer than 4 points from those matches, the top-six finish that looked comfortable in December will be in serious jeopardy.
🧠 Quick Quiz – La Liga Knowledge
❓ Q1: How many goals did Villarreal score in the first half? A) 1 B) 2 C) 3 D) 4
❓ Q2: Which former Arsenal player scored Villarreal’s third goal? A) Thomas Partey B) Nicolas Pépé C) Gabriel D) Mesut Özil
❓ Q3: What is Alex Freeman’s nationality? A) Canadian B) English C) American D) Mexican
❓ Q4 (Trap): Where does Villarreal sit in the La Liga table after this result? A) 2nd B) 3rd (level with Atletico) C) 4th D) 5th
(Answers at the bottom.)
Our Prediction
We predict Villarreal will finish third in La Liga and qualify directly for the Champions League group stage. The January slump was a blip caused by injuries (Partey, Foyth, Kambwala all out) rather than a systemic problem. As those players return, Marcelino’s squad has the depth and tactical flexibility to stay ahead of Real Betis and Athletic Club. Espanyol, meanwhile, will finish between 7th and 9th – good enough to be proud of, but not quite enough for Europe.
Quiz Answers: Q1: B) 2 – Mikautadze (35′) and Salinas own goal (41′). Pépé (50′) and Moleiro (55′) scored in the second half. Q2: B) Nicolas Pépé – The former £72 million Arsenal signing, now 30, curled in from outside the box. Q3: C) American – Son of former NFL WR Antonio Freeman, signed from Orlando City in January 2026. Q4: B) 3rd (level with Atletico) – The trap is C (4th), which was their position before the match. They moved up to third on points, level with Atletico but with a game in hand.
Disclaimer: The Form Recovery Speed (FRS) is a proprietary metric. Match statistics sourced from ESPN and FotMob. Transfer fee data sourced from FOX Sports and public reports. This article is for informational purposes only.