In the most bizarre fashion, owing to an own goal from centre-back Aissa Mandi late in the injury-time, Villarreal squandered their chances of scripting a sensational victory against defending champions Atletico Madrid and had to settle for a 2-2 draw at the Wanda Metropolitano on Sunday. 

Into the third week of La Liga fixtures, the Yellow Submarines opened the scoring early in the second half through Manu Trigueros against the run of play. Atleti almost gave an instant reply as they equalised through Luis Suarez, who returned to the lineup after missing out on the first two fixtures. 

In the 74th minute, Arnaut Danjuma made affairs worse for Los Rojiblancos as he scored once again to put Villarreal in the lead. Unai Emery and his men were looking in prime position to cause a major upset as the minutes ran down.

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However, in the 95th minute, moments away from the final whistle, Mandi, trying to head the ball back to goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli, puts it into his own net.  

Atleti will be welcoming the solo point with open arms as in spite of dominating the proceedings Diego Simeone and his men constantly found themselves chasing the game. 

After a quiet first half in which Villarreal failed to register even a single shot, they looked like a side waiting to leak a goal after the break. However, to the shock of Atleti and the home fans, with some quick footwork, Yeremi Pino set up Trigueros, who smashed the ball past a flying Jan Oblak. The Slovenian shot-stopper got his hands on the ball but couldn’t stop it from wrapping into the net.

But the capital city club weren’t ready to let go, as they responded quickly when Angel Correa set up Suarez, who slotted the ball home. With the scores level, Atleti were looking like the ones to take away the three glorious points when Villarreal forward Danjuma found himself in the opposition box with just the keeper to beat after a defensive lapse from Los Rojiblancos.

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The Dutchman found the back of the net as the away fans were left buzzing. The clock rolled down and with just a minute of injury time to play, the tragedy of football unfolded. Mandi ended up conceding an own goal after a solid performance throughout the night and Atleti were gifted a point out of the blue. Football bloody hell!

With the draw, Atletico Madrid are tied at seven points with Real Madrid, Barcelona and three other teams. While Villarreal have ended up drawing all of their games so far.