Real Madrid lost further ground on LaLiga leaders FC Barcelona following a 3-2 defeat to Villarreal CF on Saturday night.
Madrid rested some key players from the win over FC Barcelona and started Lucas Vazquez, Antonio Rudiger, Nacho Fernandez and Aurelien Tchouameni.
Los Blancos took the lead on 16 minutes albeit fortuitously when Pau Torres looked to clear a cutback in the area from Vinicius Junior and ended up slotting the ball into his own net.
Veteran goalkeeper Pepe Reina produced a double save after three minutes and denied a low shot from Karim Benzema before he smothered Rodrygo.
A substitution from the Yellow Submarines minutes after the half-hour mark where Manu Trigueros came off the bench and took the spot of a certain Ramon Terrats.
The alteration energised them and they duly levelled matters in the last five minutes to halftime after Samuel Chukwueze skipped past Nacho from Giovani Lo Celso's pass and nestled the bottom-corner.
Los Blancos issued an alteration after the break in Brazilian international Eder Militao in the place of David Alaba as Carlo Ancelotti looked to solidify the defensive area.
Real managed to regain the lead two minutes from the break when Vinicius picked up a teasing pass from Dani Ceballos and darted in space before beating Reina from point-blank range.
The Yellow Submarines didn't lose confidence after falling behind again and caught out Thibaut Courtois from a looping ball only for Yeremy Pino to snap the subsequent supply.
Villarreal levelled in the last 20 minutes when Jose Luis Morales latched onto a cutback from Chukwueze and fired in with the effort approved by the pitch-side review team after it was initially disallowed.
Los Blancos were behind with ten minutes to go after Chukwueze dropped a shoulder outside the area and riffled in the top corner through a curling shot.
Madrid closed-in to the equaliser as the minutes ticked on, but Rodrygo failed to guide home a cutback from Vinicius and saw the host go down with their title push in jeopardy.
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