BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – Weakened by injuries and coronavirus infections, Real Madrid lost problems for the back-to-back of the Spanish league on Saturday by tying 1-1 at Villarreal.
Without the leadership of Sergio Ramos and the striking touch of Karim Benzema, Zinedine Zidane’s Madrid had to stay one point at El Estadio de los angeles Cer-mica.
Madrid got off to a promising start when the little-used striker Mariano Daaz hit a smart headbutt at a Dani Carvajal centre 3 minutes after kick-off.
Madrid controlled the rest of the first half, Unai Emery’s Villarreal took a step forward after the resumption.
After Dani Parejo and Gerard Moreno approached with gunshots, Emery sent Samuel Chukwueze and Pervis Estupion, reinforcements teamed up to produce the tie when Estupion sent a long pass to the area to find Chukwueze’s career, and Courtois ran and swept Chukwueze. Moreno intervened to kick the penalty against Courtois at 76′.
Villarreal was going for the winner but had to settle for the point that kept him in position for the time being and undefeated at home this season.
“Tying with the protective champions would possibly leave you satisfied, but the way we play left me feeling that the game depends on us to win,” Emery said.
Villarreal, who did not have the injured striker Paco Alcecer, is a point of the leaders of the Real Sociedad, who face Cadiz on Sunday.
Real Madrid missed Ramos, Benzema and Federico Valverde for injury; Casemiro, Eder Milito and Luka Jovic had nothing left after giving positive for coronavirus, but still had an initial eleven, adding Eden Hazard, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, and Zidane used Francisco ‘Isco’ Alarcón and Marco Asensio as his understudy.
Madrid, which lost 4–1 to Valencia in the past before last week’s foreign stop, remained in fourth place with one match in progress.
SIX GOALS IN SEVILLA
Two back goals gave Sevilla a 4–2 win over Celta de Vigo to slow coach Eduardo Coudet’s debut.
Attractive football in the first half ended 2-2. Jules Kounde and Youssef En-Nesyri scored for Seville, and Iago Aspas and Manuel “Nolito” Agudo du Celta used some oversights from Tomas Vaclik to finish off two lost balls.
Vaclik shut down Santi Mina from close range before Seville propelled a winner.
A long-range shot by Sergio Escudero deflected a defender and closed Celta goalkeeper Rubén Blanco in the 85th minute. Munir El Haddadi scored a fourth goal after his shot hit a defender to lie to Blanco.
In addition, Elche tied 1-1 with the Levante.
___
More AP Soccer: https://apnews. com/Soccer and https://twitter. com/AP_Sports