Villarreal 3 - Deportivo La Coruña 1

Villarreal: López Vallejo; Quique Alvarez, Ballesteros, Unai, Arruabarrena; Belletti (Guayre 92'), Marcos Senna, Josico (Calleja 72'), Jorge López; Víctor (Berruet 81'), Palermo. 4-4-2.
Deportivo: Juanmi; Héctor (Diego Tristán 64'), César, Naybet, Romero; Duscher (Sergio 60'), Mauro Silva; Scaloni, Víctor, Fran; Makaay (Luque 70'). 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Villarreal: Josico for Rubén Reyes / Deportivo: Juanmi, Héctor, Naybet, Romero, Duscher for Molina, Donato, Capdevila, Sergio, Diego Tristán.

Goals:
0-1. 07. Víctor. Steered header wide of López Vallejo from Fran free kick.
1-1. 48. César (own goal). Deflected Víctor cross past own keeper.
2-1. 62. Víctor (penalty). After Naybet ruled to have handled in area.
3-1. 89. Belletti. Header down across keeper from Calleja centre.

Deportivo La Coruña were looking for a win to dedicate to their keeper Molina, who will be out for most of the season after being diagnosed with cancer. The team came out before the game wearing T-shirts in support of their player, who was replaced by Juanmi in the starting line up. By coincidence his opposite number was López Vallejo, who had been linked all week with a possible move to the Riazor as Molina's replacement.

After their defeat in their last game at the hands of Racing Irureta decided to change his formation once again, this time placing Víctor in the position of Valerón, the third player he has tried since the Spanish international picked up his injury a month or so ago. And at first it appeared he had picked a winner, Víctor opening the scoring by bravely sticking his head in the way of Fran's fiercely struck free kick to deflect it past López Vallejo.

However Floro's side picked themselves up, and were unlucky not to go in level at the break after Jorge López and Senna both shot just wide, and referee Losantos Omar turned down a penalty appeal when Naybet barged Ballesteros out of the way.

It only took them three minutes of the second half though to get back, thanks in part to César who completely missed his clearance from Víctor's cross, the ball bouncing off his other leg and in to the corner of the net. Then midway through the second half Losantos Omar made up for his earlier mistake, awarding a controversial penalty against Naybet for handling in the area under pressure from Víctor, who converted the resulting kick.

Irureta brought on Tristán and then Luque, and with ten minutes to go Luque fell rather to easily under Unai's challenge provoking the expulsion of the home side defender. Depor failed to take advantage though, and five minutes later Belletti got on the end of Calleja's floated cross to head a third. It was Villarreal's first win of the season, and takes them away from the danger zone. Depor drop to midtable, and have to pick themselves up for the visit to Lens on Wednesday, vital for their Champions League interests.