Unai Emery off the mark for Villarreal with win over Eibar

Gerard Moreno and Pacer Alcacer scored for Villarreal to earn a 2-1 win over Eibar in La Liga. The win is new manager Unai Emery's first win with the club. Kike Garcia had given the away side the lead but they were unable to hang on.

Unai Emery earned his first win as Villarreal coach after his side came from behind to beat Eibar 2-1 at home on Saturday in La Liga.

After being held to a disappointing draw with promoted Huesca last week, Villarreal again fell behind at home to humble opposition when Kike Garcia put Eibar ahead five minutes into the second half.

Emery sprung a double substitution shortly afterwards and the changes paid dividends as Gerard Moreno levelled in the 63rd minute and then played in Paco Alcacer, who rounded the goalkeeper to tap into the net from a tight angle in the 71st.

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Pervis Estupinan should have grabbed a third goal in added time when he somehow fired over the bar on the rebound with the goal gaping and his side had to defend deep in the final minutes to see out the victory.

"This is a valuable win but we need to demand far more of ourselves, to make sure we compete towards the top of the table and make a statement to our rivals," said Emery.

"We have to make sure we keep our heads whatever happens in the game. We have had two tough tests in which we've fallen behind after missing chances and had goals ruled out. But we need to learn to deal with our doubts and overcome them.

"We need to put pressure on ourselves but it shouldn't be negative, it should help us improve. Some players are still lacking something but we'll keep improving and today we did enough to win and to gain some confidence."

Also on Saturday, Getafe beat Osasuna 1-0 with a second-half strike from Jaime Mata to get off to a winning start after missing the first round of matches.

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