Villarreal forced a 2-2 draw against its guest, Atletico Madrid, at the end of the first stage of the Spanish Football League.
Dutchman Arnaut Danjuma (18) and Koke (37 own goal) scored for Villarreal, while Marcos Llorente (20) and Norwegian Alexander Sorloth (45+5) scored for Atletico. Danjuma opened the scoring in a remarkable way, when he received a long pass from goalkeeper Diego Conde and ran on the left side, dribbling past the defense and scoring to the left of Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak (18).
Llorente, who won the European Cup with his country, did not delay in equalizing with a wonderful shot from the right side into the roof of the goal (20).
Koke made a mistake in dealing with Alex Baena’s cross, putting it in the net as Oblak came out (37).
But the scorer, Sorloth, who came from Villarreal, equalized the score with a header, taking advantage of a cross from Pablo Barrios (45+5).
Sorloth increased his goal tally in the top five leagues for 2024, scoring his 18th goal, outperforming his closest pursuer, Canadian Jonathan David with Lille and Englishman Harry Kane with Bayern Munich (15 each), according to Opta statistics.
The substitutes of the Argentine coach Diego Simeone, who brought in four of them from the beginning of the second half until the 64th minute, before bringing in the Argentine Julian Alvarez, the new arrival from Manchester City, the English champion in the past four seasons, instead of Griezmann (78), were unable to change the result.
Atletico, who are seeking to win the league title for the first time since their last coronation in 2020-2021, finished last season in fourth place, while Villarreal finished eighth.
Valladolid made a successful start by defeating its guest Espanyol with a single goal scored by Raul Moro (23).
The Andalusian team was relegated in the 2022-2023 season with Espanyol itself, before they were promoted together.
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