Villarreal beats Twente 5-1 in Europa League

Published Apr. 7, 2011 6:06 p.m. ET

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Brazil striker Nilmar scored twice as Villarreal punished a lackluster FC Twente with a 5-1 win at Madrigal Stadium in the first leg of the Europa League quarterfinals on Thursday.

The match was marred by a leg injury to Villarreal defender Gonzalo Rodriguez, who was taken to hospital in an ambulance with a suspected broken fibula, television reports said.

''We have to dedicate this game to Gonzalo,'' Nilmar said. ''It's an important step, we played very well and we did exactly what we worked on.''

Villarreal opened the scoring against the Dutch league leaders in the 22nd minute when defender Carlos Marchena headed in a corner kick at the far post.

Twente striker Luuk de Jong left the field limping with an ankle injury and had to be substituted by Marc Janko in the 33rd.

Nilmar then delicately lobbed the ball over stranded goalkeeper Nikolay Mihaylov only to hit the right post in the 34th.

Borja Valero stretched Villarreal's lead when he struck a low shot which Mihaylov just made contact with but could not deflect away from goal in the 43rd.

Nilmar headed a stray ball down powerfully in the penalty area, beating Mihaylov for Villarreal's third goal in the 45th.

Giuseppe Rossi hit a long shot hard from outside the penalty area over two Twente defenders and to the right of Mihaylov into the back of the net in the 55th.

Two yellow cards featured in the next 15 minutes, for separates incidents by Roberto Rosales and Janko, whose tackle from behind on Villarreal defender Rodriguez forced him to be stretchered off. TV channel Cuatro reported Rodriguez's fibula was broken in the tackle and the player was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

Nilmar struck a powerful shot straight past Mihaylov in the 80th for Villarreal's fifth goal.

Janko pulled one back for Twente with a header in injury time, causing a hush to fall on the 23,000-strong crowd.

The return leg is next Thursday in the Netherlands.