record-breaking goal puts sevilla in driving seat published: thursday 12 march 2015, 23.20cet villarreal cf 1-3 sevilla fc vitolo struck the fastest goal in uefa europa league history as the visitors established a healthy first-leg lead against their domestic rivals.
• vitolo scores after 13.21 seconds, the fastest goal in uefa europa league history • stéphane mbia and kevin gameiro add others for victorious sevilla • luciano vietto gives hope to villarreal with his sixth of campaign • both sides strike the woodwork in all-spanish end-to-end affair • the second leg is next thursday in andalusia, with the quarter-final draw the following day
sevilla took a giant step towards a quarter-final place after finding the net three times at estadio el madrigal to take the upper hand in their tie against villarreal cf.
unai emery's team went into the game knowing exactly how to cause their opponents damage and got off to a dream start, with vitolo finishing off kevin gameiro's pass with just 13 seconds on the clock, making it the fastest goal in uefa europa league historu. the visitors doubled their lead through stéphane mbia's header but luciano vietto breathed life into his side with a goal in the 48th minute. however, kevin gameiro brought the hosts back to reality by scoring two minutes later.
despite vitolo's goal, villarreal dominated the first half and kept creating chances to the delight of their fans, who, despite the early disappointment, got right behind the hosts. luciano vietto hit the crossbar just seconds after going behind and jaume costa came close to equalising with a header in the 25th minute.
but while the hosts were the better team, they were undone again in the 26th minute. gameiro found benoit trémoulinas and the french left-back put a brilliant cross into the box where mbia again showed his power with a header which sergio asenjo could do nothing about.
villarreal were hit hard by the blow and it was sevilla's aleix vidal who came closest to scoring next, hitting the bar in the 40th minute. vietto also had a good chance to reduce the deficit before half-time but his shot dropped the wrong side of the post. the second half began as had the first – with a goal. villarreal got back into the game when vietto made the most of mateo musacchio's run inside the box, but two-minutes later gameiro restored the away team's two-goal advantage with a rasping volley.
villarreal continued creating chances as substitute joel campbell and denis cheryshev both came close and then in the 90th minute sergio rico made two outstanding saves to deny gerard moreno from close range, allowing the andalusian team to take a huge step towards the quarter finals.
