At the Metropolitano stadium, Villarreal grabbed the lead with a penalty kick by Gerard Moreno in the first half, but Diego Simeone's team equalized through a goal from Samuel Lino after 58 minutes.

After their exhausting Champions League comeback victory over Bayer Leverkusen in the middle of the week, Simeone started his team with Antoine Griezmann and Rodrigo de Paul on the bench. Atletico struggled to overcome the fifth-place visitors in the first half as they attempted to recover from last weekend's loss to lowly Leganes, which ended a 15-match winning streak across all competitions. When Reinildo Mandava knocked down Moreno in the area, Villarreal grabbed the lead against the flow of play. Before the hour, Atletico equalized when Lino bundled home at the back post after Luiz Junior redirected Angel Correa's improvised backheel attempt into his path.