baptistão powers villarreal to plzen success published: thursday 1 october 2015, 23.01cet villarreal 1-0 plzen léo baptistão's slaloming solo effort gave the yellow submarine their first group e points, the visitors ending the game with ten men.
lovely léo baptistão solo goal wins it for the yellow submarine plzen look solid but fail to get a single shot on target all game villarreal run out of puff after all-action opening first points on the group e board for spanish side next games: villarreal v dinamo minsk, rapid wien v plzen (22 october)
léo baptistão's rampaging solo effort lent some sparkle to a subdued group e game, and gave villarreal three points against plzen.
plzen were pummelled from the off, but a string of half chances never quite amounted to a breakthrough. samuel castillejo stroked wide from a good position, léo baptistão had a shot charged away by visiting goalkeeper matúš kozácik, and roberto soldado fired one effort over the bar and then flashed a header wide with the goal at his mercy.
with the home side's shock-and-awe assault petering out by the half-hour mark, plzen had a little more space, but mariano barbosa was never troubled between the villarreal posts.
with both sides short on inspiration, léo baptistão took matters into his own hands on 54 minutes, sallying out of his own half to test the plzen defence single-handed. the atlético madrid loanee rode two challenges before beating kozácik at his near post with a powerful shot.
