Almería 1 - Villarreal 0

Almería: Diego Alves; Bruno, Carlos García, Acasiete, Mané; Felipe Melo, Soriano (Guilherme 75'), Corona; Juanma Ortíz (José Ortíz 56'), Negredo, Crusat (Paunovic 64'). 4-3-3.
Villarreal: Diego López; Javi Venta, Gonzalo, Cygan, Angel; Eguren, Marcos Senna; Cazorla, Nihat (Guille Franco 81'), Mati Fernández (Cani 65'); Rossi (Juan Carlos 18'). 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Almería: Acasiete, Corona for Pulido, Juanito / Villarreal: Cygan, Angel, Mati Fernández for Godín, Capdevila, Pires.

Goals:
1-0. 84. Acasiete. Following up after Juan Carlos pushed out Paunovic header.

Villarreal stay in third place after they lost 1-0 to Almería on Sunday evening. The turning point of the match came on the quarter hour mark when keeper Diego López was sent off for bringing down Crusat in the area. Negredo fired his spot kick over the top of the goal, but after that the visitors looked to defend, and didn't trouble Diego Alves in the local goal until Eguren tested him in the final minute.

With Viera not available, Villarreal B team's Juan Carlos came on in goal. The young keeper got off to a shaky start, spilling efforts from Melo and Crusat, but he did well to keep out Mané and Negredo either side of half time. It looked as if points would be shared, but with a few minutes to go Acasiete bundled the ball into the net after Juan Carlos could only push out Paunovic's header. Almería's great season continues, and after eight home games without defeat they are now only six points off the UEFA Cup spots.