Villarreal defeated Atletico Madrid 2-0 at the Civitas Metropolitano thanks to goals from Yeremi Pino and Gerard Moreno.
The hosts gave the ball away carelessly at the back, and Pino punished them with a sublime 73rd-minute finish into the far bottom-left corner.
Diego Simeone’s team desperately tried to equalize but were unable to do so, and Moreno added a second in stoppage time after Nahuel Molina was sent off.
Atletico Madrid were disappointed not to follow up their opening victory over Getafe, while Villarreal maintained their unblemished record in LaLiga.
Alvaro Morata should have given Atletico the lead in the first minute, but Geronimo Rulli saved his volley.
After 10 minutes, Etienne Capoue and Giovani Lo Celso combined well to set up Pino, who fired just over.
Villarreal scored 10 minutes before halftime, but the ball was ruled to have struck Moreno’s arm as he finished after his initial effort had hit the crossbar.
With 20 minutes remaining, Matheus Cunha had a great chance but couldn’t convert after a teasing Angel Correa cross found him in the area.
Cunha was made to regret that miss moments later when a mix-up at the back allowed Pino to lash in from a difficult angle to put the visitors ahead.
When a Cunha header hit the crossbar and Carrasco nodded the rebound back at goal, Rulli somehow kept the ball out of the Villarreal net.
Atletico defender Molina received a straight red card in added time for a petulant push on Alex Baene, before Moreno added a second goal with a clever finish in the dying moments to secure all three points.
What does it imply? Atletico Madrid is lagging behind.
The visitors maintained their perfect start to the season, moving up to third in the LaLiga table after two games. Simeone’s men dropped to seventh after a home defeat, and this was a jolt of performance and result for Simeone.
Pino is ruthless.
Pino was alert to win the game for his team when he latched onto a poor pass in the Atletico defense before finishing past Jan Oblak. He completed 19 of his 23 passes and drew two fouls.
Morata is a squanderer.
Morata scored twice in his team’s 3-0 win over Getafe on the first day, but he was unable to replicate that performance here. He was taken off after 70 minutes after failing to score on all four of his goal attempts. He completed only 42.9% of his passes while winning 57.1 % of his duels.
What comes next?
On Monday, August 29, Atletico will return to action when they travel to Valencia. Villarreal will turn their attention to the second leg of their Europa Conference League play-off on Thursday when they travel to Croatia to face Hadjuk Split.