Villarreal hero Renato Veiga haunts Juventus, as Conceição shines in 2-2 draw | OneFootball

Villarreal 2-2 Juventus

Renato Veiga scored in the final minute of normal time as Villarreal snatched a late point against Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday evening.

Veiga was playing against his former club, having turned out for the Italian side last season on-loan from Chelsea, as the defender denied the Bianconeri a victory which looked to have been largely inspired by substitute Chico Conceição.

Hosts Villarreal fielded both of their expensive summer signings, with initial record-breaking signing Veiga (fee rising to  €29.5m) joined in the starting line-up by the club’s all-time most expensive outlay Georges Mikautadze. The Georgian, who arrived from Lyon for €31m, opened the scoring on 18 minutes with a smart close-range finish past Juve goalkeeper Mattia Perin.

Juventus’ below par performance in the first half led to manager Igor Tudor making a change at the break, throwing on winger Chico Conceição for midfielder Teun Koopmeiners. Portuguese right-back João Mário had already entered the action early on in the game in place of the injury Juan Cabal, but it was the introduction of Conceição which brought life to the Serie A side.

Sparked by the former Porto man’s energy, Juve levelled through Federico Gatti’s stunning overhead kick (49’) before Conceição took centre stage. The diminutive wide man intercepted a loose pass in midfield before jinking his way through the Spanish defence and beating Arnau Tenas with a left-foot finish.

The goal looked set to be the winner until Veiga’s late intervention. The defender, who was loaned by Chelsea to Juventus during the second half of last season, rose to head in a corner from Ilias Akhomach in the 90th minute to punish his former team, giving Villarreal their first point of the campaign in the process.

“I’m not saying that (the game changed) because I came on, but that the team understood what we needed to improve at the end of the first half,” Conceição said after the match.

“We have to train a little better: We improved in the second half but couldn’t get the win. We missed another goal, which we deserved, but it must be said that we played a strong team. We have to continue, be strong and think about the next big challenge in Serie A.”

For Veiga and Villarreal, the buzz of the late equaliser was a needed bit of positivity ahead of their weekend trip to the Santiago Bernabeu to play Real Madrid in La Liga. For Juventus and their Portuguese duo, a similarly big occasion awaits on Sunday as they host AC Milan in Serie A.