Villarreal’s hopes of a place in this year’s Champions League are in serious jeopardy after they lost 1-2 to Monaco in the first leg of the play-off round. New coach Fran Escribá was thrown in at the deep end after Marcelino was sacked a few days ago, and with several key players out injured or suspended he only had thirteen of his first team squad to count on. That included five players signed in recent weeks, Alexandre Pato and Santos Borré starting up front and N’Diaye playing out of position in defence, and with only three minutes gone the ex Betis midfielder gave away a penalty on Lemar which Fabinho converted. With ten minutes to go to the break Pato levelled the scores after Santos headed the ball across, but the visitors could have had a couple of penalties before Bernardo Silva cut across the area to restore the lead with twenty minutes to go. A quarter of an hour later the French league side were left with ten men when Mendy picked up two bookings in the same incident, but Subasic kept out José Angel and Mario after that to give his team the advantage going in to next Tuesday’s return leg. (17.08.16)