Villarreal ended an 11-game winless streak in the Champions League group stage by beating Young Boys 4-1 on Wednesday.
Headed goals by Yeremi Pino and Gerard Moreno in the first 16 minutes lifted Villarreal to its first win at this stage of the competition since 2008.
Defender Alberto Moreno and Samu Chukwueze sealed the win with late goals after Meschack Elia gave Young Boys some hope with a neat finish in the 77th.
It lifted the Spanish club from last place in Group F into second behind Manchester United, which rallied from Atalanta taking a two-goal lead in the first half at Old Trafford to win 3-2.
Man United is two points clear of Villarreal after Cristiano Ronaldo scored the late winning goal, as he did against the Spanish club three weeks ago. Ronaldo has now scored against each opponent in the group.
Both Villarreal and Atalanta have four points. Young Boys dropped to last in the group with three points, earned by beating Man United on artificial turf in the opening round.
Though Young Boys created more chances Wednesday, Villarreal was more efficient and less wasteful than it was as an unlucky loser at Man United.
Young Boys and Villarreal each had shots strike the crossbar, and the Swiss champion’s winger Michel Aebischer saw his long-range effort in the 31st rebound into goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli’s face and drop to Elia whose shot went high.
Rulli was struck in the face again in the second half to save from Christian Fassnacht who had just the goalkeeper to beat.
Villarreal coach Unai Emery got the better of Young Boys’ David Wagner, just as he did in the English Premier League three years ago when they were coaching Arsenal and Huddersfield, respectively.
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