Villarreal and Atletico Madrid scored four goals between them in an action-packed first half, but neither team could find the winning goal in the second half and had to settle for a 2-2 draw in their opening La Liga match.

The newly formed Atletico team had to make do without Stefan Savic, Mario Hermoso, Memphis Depay and Alvaro Morata and fell behind after just 18 minutes away from home when Arnaut Danjuma scored a solo goal from a tight angle.

Two minutes later, Marcos Llorente equalised for Atletico with a shot, but nine minutes before half-time, hosts Villarreal took the lead again thanks to a goalkeeping error from goalkeeper Jan Oblak.

Oblak missed a cross and the ball hit the unsuspecting Koke, bounced into the net and gave him an own goal.

Alexander Sorloth, who joined from Villarreal this month, equalised for Atletico in first-half stoppage time. The visitors tried to turn things around in the second half by bringing on four Argentine players, including new signing Julian Alvarez from Manchester City, but they could not make a decisive impact.

Joao Felix was not included in Atletico’s squad despite reports that he was close to a move to Chelsea.

On Monday, Real Valladolid celebrated its return to the Spanish top division with a 1-0 home win against fellow promoted team Espanyol.

Valladolid, majority owned by former Brazilian striker Ronaldo, scored a goal midway through the first half through Raul Moro.

The 21-year-old winger cut forward from the left and was lucky that his shot deflected and caught the Espanyol goalkeeper on the wrong foot.