It was another goal frenzy for El Submarino Amarillo in their temporary home of Estadi Ciutat de Valencia, as they have now scored four or more goals in each of their four ‘home’ victories in the stadium.
Unai Emery once again gave his second-string players a chance to impress in the UECL, and it was instantly clear that Samuel Chukwueze was ready to take advantage of the opportunity.
It was the unfortunate luck of Austria Vienna full-back Dario Kreiker, making his European debut, to be the man tasked with stopping the tricky Nigerian, and it was the steepest of learning curves for the 19-year-old.
Time and again Chukwueze jinked and jived beyond his marker, and in the 18th minute, he finished a mazy run with a deep cross which found Alex Baena, who had the time to bring the ball down and score with a delicious finish from the corner of the six-yard box.
The Austrian side’s moments of hope were fleeting, but they came close when Dominik Fitz thundered his free-kick against the bar, with Filip Jorgensen well and truly beaten in the Villarreal goal.
It would prove to be a false dawn though, as in the final minute of the first half a smart dummy from Manu Morlanes allowed Arnaut Danjuma to drive into the box, and he poked the ball beyond Christian Fruchtl to double his team’s lead.
The away side ensured the second half would be no formality, as first Fitz and then Aleksandar Jukic forced Jorgensen into a couple of nifty saves, although with 20 minutes to go the spark had fizzled out of the mini-revival.
The final act belonged to substitute Jose Luis Morales, who bagged a 12-minute hat trick.
First, the veteran forward lofted a 30-yard finish into an empty net as Fruchtl needlessly raced out of his goal, before the 35-year-old was on hand to coolly tap home an Etienne Capoue cross, and with just two minutes remaining he was allowed to bag his third.
It meant another night without continental success for the Austrian side, who are now 11 European games without a win.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Samuel Chukwueze (Villarreal)
See stats from the match at Flashscore
In other fixtures:
Group A's Fiorentina got their first win of the Conference League group stage with a resounding 3-0 win away at Hearts while group leaders Istanbul Basaksehir could only draw away at Latvian side RFS, it ended 1-1 there.
In Group D, Partizan Belgrade recorded a vital 1-0 win away in Germany at FC Koln. The three points puts the Serbian side top of the group, level with Nice, with five points.
AZ Alkmaar continued their perfect start in Group E with a third win from three at home to Apollon. It wasn't so straightforward for the Dutch side, however, they grabbed the 3-2 win in the final five minutes of the match.
Group F's Gent and Group G's Slavia Prague both fell to 1-0 home defeats. Gent lost to Djurgarden and Slavia to FCR Cluj.
Finally, in Group H, Basel were surprised at home, losing 2-0 to Slovan Bratislava.