Real Madrid 3 - Villarreal 2

Madrid: Casillas; Michel Salgado (Drenthe 86'), Sergio Ramos, Cannavaro, Miguel Torres; Baptista (Sneijder 72'), Gago, Guti; Raúl, Van Nistelrooy, Robinho (Higuaín 88'). 4-3-3.
Villarreal: Diego López; Javi Venta, Godín, Cygan, Capdevila; Marcos Senna, Bruno (Josico 58'); Cani (Angel 58'), Nihat (Tomasson 69'), Cazorla; Rossi. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Madrid: Michel Salgado, Baptista for Pepe, Sneijder / Villarreal: Cazorla for Pires.

Goals:
1-0. 08. Robinho. Connected with Guti pass to shoot low across keeper.
1-1. 15. Rossi. Picked up pass from Nihat and shot wide of Casillas.
2-1. 52. Robinho. At third attempt after Diego López saved from Raúl and Guti.
2-2. 75. Capdevila. From close up after Cazorla played corner across goal.
3-2. 77. Sneijder. Ran on to Gago's high pass and turned shot past keeper.

With only just over half the league gone Real Madrid appeared to have the title sewn up already. Bernd Schuster's side opened up a nine point gap over Barcelona after a 3-2 win over third placed Villarreal, who themselves are another six points adrift. Guti set up Robinho to open the scoring in the eighth minute, but Rossi equalised soon afterwards, the first goal that Casillas has let in for seven games.

After that though only Diego López (who last year was understudy to Casillas at the Bernabeu) kept the scores level at the break. López saved efforts from Robinho and Guti and then a Guti free kick, and Robinho went close with another shot later on. Cazorla and Nihat shot wide at the other end either side of half time, but seven minutes after the restart Robinho restored the lead, beating López at the third attempt after shots from Raúl and Guti had been blocked.

Baptista and Van Nistelrooy came close to making it three, but with a quarter of an hour to go Capdevila levelled the scores once again after Cazorla played a corner across goal. However just a couple of minutes later Madrid were back in the lead after Sneijder ran on to Gago's lofted pass to turn a shot past the keeper. Casillas still had to be on his toes to keep out a Godín header, but this time there was no way back for the visitors.