IN SPORT.ES
Gerard Moreno's second half penalty earned Villarreal a 1-1 draw against a depleted Real Madrid side at the Estadio de la Cerámica on Saturday.
Mariano Diaz gave Madrid a second minute lead but Moreno levelled from the spot after Thibaut Courtois brought down Samuel Chukwueze.
Madrid are now two games without a win in the league following their defeat to Valencia last time out, while Villarreal have lost just one of their 10 games -- against Barcelona -- and currently sit second in the table.
Zinedine Zidane's side were missing several key players on Saturday. Sergio Ramos, Casemiro and Karim Benzema were all absent for various reasons, although Dani Carvajal and Eden Hazard were available again.
However, it was one of the squad players who gave Madrid the lead. Mariano, making his first start since May 2019 headed home Carvajal's second-minute cross.
There was controversy about a raised offside flag from the lineman, but VAR deemed that the player offside, Lucas Vazquez, was not interfering with play.
In a game of few clear-cut chances, Villarreal eventually woke up in the final 30 minutes after the introduction of Chukwueze and Pervis Estupinan.
Shortly after Dani Parejo had fired the home side's best chance over, Estupinan and Chukwueze combined to win a penalty which Moreno slotted home.
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Villarreal looked the more likely to win the game as it opened up in the final 10 minutes but Courtois stood big to deny Takefusa Kubo, who's on loan from Madrid at Villarreal, late on and the points were shared.