Villarreal 2-3 Deportivo La Coruna: how it happened
Twice behind at the Ceramica, the promoted side rode a goal and two assists from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to a comeback win that leaves Super Depor 2.0 fourth — and Villarreal in real trouble.
A club that spent eight years wandering Spain's lower divisions walked into the Estadio de la Ceramica on Saturday night and left with the most persuasive result of its young season. Deportivo La Coruna beat Villarreal 3-2, coming from behind twice, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring the 88th-minute winner and having a hand in the other two. Four matches into La Liga's new season, the promoted side sits fourth on 8 points; Villarreal, winless, sits 16th with 2 — and the gap between those two sentences is the story of Spain's early autumn.
How the game unfolded
Villarreal did most of what home favorites are supposed to do except win. They led inside 20 minutes, Nicolas Pepe finishing off Ayoze Perez's assist in the 19th minute, per Futbol Total's match data, and they controlled the ball all night — 62% possession, 17 shots to 8, seven corners to one. But Depor's response before the break foreshadowed everything: Aubameyang the creator, Luismi Cruz the finisher, 1-1 in the 43rd minute.
The final quarter-hour was chaos. Villarreal regained the lead in the 76th minute through an own goal by Adama Traore, one of Depor's ten summer signings turned briefly, cruelly, into the hosts' best attacker. The visitors needed three minutes to respond — Aubameyang again the provider, Zakaria Eddahchouri sweeping in the equalizer in the 79th — and in the 88th Aubameyang finished the job himself. Per Footballwood's match summary, the expected-goals ledger (Villarreal 1.83, Deportivo 2.62) suggests the comeback was less larceny than it looked from the possession column: Villarreal had more of the ball; Depor had the better of the clear chances.
The turning point
The own goal should have broken Deportivo. A promoted club, away to an established European regular, conceding a self-inflicted goal in the 76th minute — that is the script for a spirited 2-1 defeat. Instead the three minutes that followed revealed what Antonio Hidalgo's team is: unbothered, direct, and organized around a striker who has spent his career punishing exactly this kind of open, late-game space. From 2-1 down to 3-2 up in twelve minutes, with Aubameyang involved in all three goals — assist, assist, winner.
Super Depor 2.0 gets its signature result
Deportivo's summer was one of La Liga's most romantic stories: back in the top flight after eight seasons away, the club spent nearly €25 million on ten signings — a project Goal dubbed "Super Depor 2.0", a nod to the era that peaked with the 2000 league title. Aubameyang, arriving from Marseille as the marquee name, had already scored three goals in his opening three matches per Goal; Saturday added a goal and two assists to the account. Around him, the recruitment is visibly functional: Traore's directness (own goal notwithstanding), Lorenzo Amatucci in midfield, Eddahchouri on the scoresheet. Two wins and two draws, unbeaten, fourth in the table — no promoted club could reasonably have asked for more from the opening month.
The caveat is the one every September table carries: four matches is a mood, not a season. The calendar's heaviest fixtures are still ahead, and squads assembled in a single window tend to wobble when the list thickens. But survival campaigns are built on exactly these nights — away points that were supposed to belong to someone else.
Villarreal's problem is bigger than one night
For Villarreal the numbers read like a diagnostic report: no wins in four (two draws, two defeats), 2 points, 16th place. Saturday distilled the pattern — enough of the ball, enough territory, two leads taken, and nothing to show for it. A defense that concedes three at home to a promoted side is the immediate emergency; the deeper one is that Villarreal's control of games is not producing control of scorelines. The xG numbers say Depor earned the win, which is precisely the concern: this was not bad luck. With the season a month old, the Yellow Submarine already faces the sort of table that turns every fixture before Christmas into a referendum.
What to watch next
Two threads are worth following. The first is whether Aubameyang, at 37 and playing like a man with a point to prove, can sustain this output through the winter — because Depor's ceiling this season is essentially a function of his. The second is Villarreal's response: winless starts in La Liga have a way of resolving quickly, in one direction or the other, and the next few weeks will show whether this is an early-season malfunction or the beginning of a genuinely troubled year. On Saturday's evidence, the club celebrating in September is the one that spent last season in the Segunda.