Villarreal 2 - Valladolid 0

Villarreal: Viera; Javi Venta, Gonzalo, Godín, Capdevila; Eguren, Marcos Senna (Bruno 85'); Cazorla, Nihat, Pires (Cani 74'); Rossi (Mati Fernández 62'). 4-2-3-1.
Valladolid: Sergio Asenjo; Pedro López (Aguirre 75'), Javier Baraja, Alexis, Oscar Sánchez; Alvaro Rubio, Borja (Vivar Dorado 55'); Sisi, Víctor, Jonathan Sesma (Ogbeche 55'); Llorente. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Villarreal: Viera, Godín, Capdevila, Pires for Diego López, Cygan, Angel, Mati Fernández / Valladolid: Alexis, Borja for García Calvo, Camacho.

Goals:
1-0. 15. Nihat. Picked up Cazorla pass and rounded Alexis to score from wide out.
2-0. 46. Cazorla. Got on the end of Nihat square pass to shoot into empty net.

Villarreal moved up ahead of Barcelona to second spot after a 2-0 win over Valladolid. The visitors were in need of points to escape the drop zone, and Viera had some work to do to keep out Sisi and Llorente early on. But it was Nihat who opened the scoring with fifteen minutes on the clock, picking up Cazorla's pass and cutting in past Alexis before beating Sergio Asenjo from a wide angle.

Rossi and Nihat both put efforts wide later in the first half, but Viera was almost beaten by his own man, the keeper having to stop a back header from Godín. Just a minute after the restart though the locals went further ahead, Nihat drawing the keeper before squaring across for Cazorla to roll the ball in to an empty net. Rubio and Llorente missed chances to shorten the gap later on, and Nihat hit the outside of the upright with a free kick, but there were no further additions to the scoreline.