Villarreal 1 - Almería 1

Villarreal: Viera; Angel, Fuentes Cygan, Capdevila; Marcos Senna, Bruno; Cazorla (Mati Fernández 62'), Nihat (Tomasson 76'), Pires (Cani 68'); Guille Franco. 4-2-3-1.
Almería: Cobeño; López Rekarte, Carlos García, Pulido, Mané; Juanma Ortíz, Soriano, Felipe Melo, Crusat (Acasiete 90'); Kalu Uche (Juanito 61'), Negredo (Natalio 68'). 4-4-2.

Team changes: Villarreal: Bruno, Cazorla for Josico, Cani / Almería: López Rekarte, Pulido for Bruno, Acasiete.

Goals:
1-0. 13. Nihat. Ran on to Guille Franco reverse pass and turned shot under keeper.
1-1. 52. Negredo. Got on the end of López Rekarte cross to score on far post.

Villarreal missed out on a chance to end the weekend in first place after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Almería. Real Madrid's draw the night before meant that a victory would take them to the top of the pile, and for half an hour or so they were there after Nihat combined with Guille Franco to put them ahead in the thirteenth minute.

Franco, Senna and Nihat all tried to build on the lead before the break, and Nihat brought a good save out of Cobeño immediately after the restart. But seven minutes in to the second half ex Real Madrid B striker Negredo got on the end of a López Rekarte cross to turn the ball wide of Viera and level the scores.

Both sides had chances after that, Soriano and Senna firing shots wide at either end, but in the end they had to settle for a point which left the home side a point behind Madrid in second spot, and kept the visitors out of the bottom three.