The Yellow Submarine started the scoring with a Cani goal, before Hulk and Falcao effectively ended the hopes of the Spaniards with a goal in either half. Juan Carlos Garrido’s men managed to grab the win on the night thanks to goals from Giuseppe Rossi and Joan Capdevila but the club’s first-leg deficit proved too much to recover from.
The hosts started the match at a very high tempo and were looking to get an early goal to kick start a potential scoring spree. They came very close in the opening stages as Marco Ruben wasted a headed opportunity from a Mario cross and Helton denied Cani’s shot from the edge of the box with a fine save.
Porto started to gain more of the ball around the half hour mark, and the Villarreal defense looked shaky as Fredy Guarin got in behind to only pass the ball into the hands of Diego Lopez.
The home side opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Rossi neatly played the ball down the left-hand side of the Porto box to Marco Ruben, who squared the ball for Cani to place the ball in the bottom right corner.
Hulk equalised in the 39th minute when the Brazilian drove toward the Villarreal defence before striking a left-footed shot at goal which took a wicked deflection off Mateo Musacchio and cruelly spun past the goalkeeper.
Falcao provided the hammer blow to Villarreal immediately after the break by latching on to a brilliant cross from Guarin and taking the ball down brilliantly before calmly slotting the ball past Lopez into the bottom-left corner, a goal which makes the Colombian the highest scorer ever in a single Europa League or UEFA Cup campaign, with 16 goals.
The second-half was end-to-end stuff with both teams looking likely to add to their scoring tally. Guarin came closest for the away side with a rocket of a free kick which smashed the crossbar.
Villarreal grabbed an equaliser in the 74th minute as veteran Capdevila peeled away to the back post to chest down a cross and volley the ball into the net from the corner of the six yard box.
The hosts snatched the win after Nicolas Otamendi brought down Ruben in the box and Rossi stepped up to expertly dispatch the penalty into the top right corner of the net.
The Yellow Submarine will need to pick themselves up as quickly as possible after their European exit with an automatic Champions League qualification position still in their reach in La Liga.
The Portuguese league champions can now start thinking of a famous treble with the Taca de Portugal final, as well as the Europa League final in Dublin on May 18, on the horizon.
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Villarreal 3-2 Porto (4-7 agg.)