1923–29: early years Club Deportivo Villarreal was founded on 10 March 1923 "to promote all sports especially Football." The stadium was rented for 60
pesetas a month and ticket prices were set at half a peseta for men and a quarter of a peseta for children. Women were granted free admission. On 17 June 1923,
Castellón, a modern rival of the club, played the first match against a club named after
Miguel de Cervantes. On 21 October of that year, Villarreal played their first game ever, playing against Castellón.
1929–98: time in lower divisions Villarreal entered regional competitions within the Spanish football pyramid from 1929 to 1930 onwards. The 1934–35 season saw the team lose to
Cartagena when a win would have seen them promoted to the nationwide Second Division. The two-legged play-off was against
Compostela. Villarreal hosted the first leg which was a 0–0 draw, but the second leg at the home of the
Galician team was a 1–1 draw, thus Villarreal were promoted on the
away goals rule.
1998–2012: La Liga and European debuts Villarreal's
La Liga debut started with a match against reigning
European champions Real Madrid at the
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on 31 August 1998 where they lost 4-1 despite taking the lead after 3 minutes. The first home game was against
Celta de Vigo In the middle of 2003, they defeated the Dutch team
Heerenveen in the final of the Intertoto Cup, thereby qualifying for the
UEFA Cup. In their major European debut, Villarreal reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, losing to neighbours and eventual champions
Valencia. In the league, Villarreal finished in eighth place. In the middle of 2004, Villarreal retained the Intertoto Cup, beating compatriots
Atlético Madrid on
penalties after the final finished 2–2 on aggregate. This qualified them to the UEFA Cup. They lost in the quarter-finals of the
2004–05 UEFA Cup to Dutch side
AZ, losing 3–2 on aggregate. During the same season, Villarreal finished in third place in La Liga, earning the club their first direct qualification to a European tournament, the
Champions League. The club's centre-forward
Diego Forlán won the
Pichichi Trophy for top scorer in the league, with 25 goals. Villarreal defeated the English Premier League's
Everton in a play-off for the
Champions League group stages. The group saw Villarreal go undefeated, drawing both games against
Manchester United and achieving a draw and a win each against
Lille of France and
Benfica of Portugal. The win over Benfica was away and both teams advanced to the last 16. The club then drew 3–3 against
Rangers of Scotland in the Last 16, advancing on away goals due to a 2–2 draw at
Ibrox. In the quarter-finals, Villarreal beat
Internazionale on away goals after finishing 2–2 on aggregate. The club bowed out in the semi-finals against
Arsenal, losing 1–0 away at
Highbury.
Juan Román Riquelme had a
penalty saved by
Jens Lehmann in the home game, which finished 0–0. Arsenal went on to lose in the final in
Paris to another Spanish club,
Barcelona. Villarreal finished seventh in La Liga, which only earned an Intertoto Cup position. Villarreal contested the Intertoto Cup in the middle of 2006 and was knocked out in its first game, to
Maribor of Slovenia. The first leg was lost 2–1 at home and the away game was a 1–1 draw. The team finished 5th in La Liga and qualified for the
UEFA Cup. Villarreal gained their best-ever league position in 2008, finishing second to Real Madrid by eight points, and also reached the last 32 in
that season's UEFA Cup. After defeating
BATE Borisov of Belarus in a play-off, the team won Group C unbeaten. Their group opponents were
Fiorentina of Italy,
Mladá Boleslav of Czech Republic,
IF Elfsborg of Sweden, and
AEK Athens of Greece. In the last 32, Villarreal were defeated by eventual champions
Zenit Saint Petersburg, losing the first leg 1–0 in Russia to a
Pavel Pogrebnyak goal. The second leg was won 2–1 by Villarreal at
El Madrigal, but Zenit advanced on away goals. The club automatically qualified for the
2008–09 UEFA Champions League by finishing second in La Liga the previous season. They drew Manchester United, for the second consecutive campaign,
Celtic, and
Aalborg BK. They made a good start by holding current European champions Manchester United to a goal-less draw at
Old Trafford, a third 0–0 draw in a row against the English giants. A first win was sealed on 30 September by beating
Gordon Strachan's Celtic 1–0 at
El Madrigal, courtesy of a
Marcos Senna free-kick. On 21 October, during a Champions League match against Aalborg, they scored six goals to three. The Spaniards went through to the knock-out stage after drawing 2–2 with Aalborg in Denmark and drawing goalless once again against Manchester United. In the last group stage match, they lost to an already-eliminated Celtic. In the knock-out stage, they faced
Panathinaikos, who left Villarreal with a 1–1 away advantage, but lost 1–2 in
Athens. Villarreal reached the quarter-finals for the second time in two attempts, and were once again paired with Arsenal. The first leg saw a 1–1 draw by a
Marcos Senna free kick, equalised by an
Emmanuel Adebayor volley.
Theo Walcott,
Emmanuel Adebayor, and
Robin van Persie secured a 3–0 win for Arsenal on the return, knocking Villarreal out of the tournament. vs. Villarreal in 2011 Despite finishing outside of a European qualifying spot in the domestic league, Villarreal was given a place in the qualifying round of the
2010–11 UEFA Europa League after UEFA determined that
Mallorca's financial irregularities precluded them from taking part in the tournament. A 5–0 home win and a 2–1 away win against
Dnepr Mogilev qualified them for the group stage. Villarreal suffered an early setback following a shock 2–0 loss in their away fixture against
Dinamo Zagreb. Despite this, however, later wins against Dinamo,
Club Brugge and
PAOK saw them top their group. After beating
Napoli,
Bayer Leverkusen and
Twente in the knockout phases, Villarreal qualified for the semi-finals to face tournament favourites
Porto. After Villarreal took a 0–1 lead at the
Estádio do Dragão, Porto made a remarkable turnaround that ended in a 5–1 defeat for Villarreal. Although Villarreal won the second leg 3–2, Porto's first leg goal total saw them advance to the final on aggregate, where they beat
Braga to be crowned champions.
Giuseppe Rossi finished as the tournament's second top goalscorer with 11 goals, behind Porto's
Radamel Falcao.
2012–present: relegation and European glory . Finally, Villarreal won and were promoted to La Liga. vs. Villarreal C. F. On 13 May 2012, Villarreal were relegated from La Liga after defeat to
Atlético Madrid. Following a horrendous season, the club suffered a shattering tragedy when
Manolo Preciado, appointed as Villarreal's new manager on 6 June 2012, died of a
heart attack later that day. Following their relegation, there was a mass exodus of players at the club, with star players such as
Borja Valero,
Diego López,
Giuseppe Rossi and
Nilmar leaving the side. After one year in the Segunda División, Villarreal were promoted back to La Liga on the
final day of the season after finishing the year second after champions
Elche. The team began its new tenure in the top flight by winning its first three games; the winning streak ended with a tie against Real Madrid at El Madrigal, though the team was undefeated until falling to
Real Betis 1–0 on the seventh matchday of the season. The Yellow Submarine finished the
2013–14 campaign in sixth, thus qualifying them for next season's
Europa League. In
2014–15, Villarreal again finished the year in sixth, enough to secure direct qualification to the
Europa League group stage. In the
2015–16 season, Villarreal led La Liga for the first time during the sixth and seventh weeks, before falling to fifth place the following week. The club ended the season in 4th place and thus advanced to the
2016–17 UEFA Champions League playoff round. The club progressed to the semi-finals of the 2015–16 Europa League, but were knocked out by
Liverpool. Villarreal won the first leg 1–0, but lost 3–0 in Liverpool and 3–1 on aggregate. In
2019–20, Villarreal finished fifth, earning a place in the
2020–21 UEFA Europa League. The team went on a memorable run, advancing to the
final after knocking out
Arsenal 2–1 on aggregate. Facing favoured
Manchester United, Villarreal held them to a 1–1 draw after extra time and then won 11–10 in a penalty shoot-out, winning the club's first ever major trophy. Domestically, they finished seventh, supposedly qualifying for the
inaugural UEFA Europa Conference League. However, courtesy of their triumph, Villarreal switched their next year's participation in the inaugural Conference League to the
2021–22 Champions League. At the start of the 2021–22 season, Villarreal competed in the
2021 UEFA Super Cup against
Chelsea in
Belfast, which ended a 1–1 draw after extra time, but
Chelsea managed to win 6–5 in the penalty shootout as captain
Raúl Albiol saw his penalty saved by
Chelsea goalkeeper
Kepa Arrizabalaga. That same season, Villarreal progressed to the semi-finals of the Champions League after knocking out
Juventus in the round of 16 and
Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals, before losing 5–2 on aggregate to Liverpool. ==Rivalries==