Villarreal 2 - Sporting Gijón 1

Villarreal: Diego López; Javi Venta, Godín, Fuentes, Capdevila; Cazorla (Eguren 80'), Marcos Senna, Pires, Cani; Rossi (Nihat 56'), Llorente (Mati Fernández 64'). 4-4-2.
Sporting: Lafuente; Raúl Cámara, Jorge, Neru, José Angel; Andreu; Pedro (Carmelo 61'), Camacho, Michel, Canella (Barral 68'); Bilic (Maldonado 81'). 4-1-4-1.

Team changes: Villarreal: Capdevila, Marcos Senna, Llorente for Ángel, Eguren, Ibagaza / Sporting: Raúl Cámara, Jorge, Neru, José Angel, Andreu, Pedro, Bilic for Sastre, Gerard, Iván Hernández, Luis Morán, Carmelo, Diego Castro, Barral.

Goals:
0-1. 01. Bilic. Turned ball past keeper after Michel headed on Cámara centre.
1-1. 02. Rossi. Fired shot past Lafuente after Cani laid back Pires cross.
2-1. 35. Capdevila. Headed ball on past keeper from Marcos Senna free kick.

Yellow cards: Jorge 10', Godín 18', Pedro 25', Javi Venta 43', Michel 82'.

Villarreal moved back up in to the top four pending Valencia's game on Sunday after beating Sporting Gijón 2-1. The first two goals came with less than two minutes on the clock, Bilic beating Diego López to put the visitors ahead in the first play of the game, but Rossi equalising almost immediately after Pires and Cani combined to set him up.

Pires fired a shot wide soon afterwards, but Bilic came close to a second goal when he hit the post midway through the first half. Soon afterwards though Capdevila headed a Marcos Senna free kick over the keeper for what was to prove the winning goal.

Canella was unlucky not to have a penalty after Javi Venta brought him down after the restart, and Nihat brought a good save out of Lafuente later on. But Villarreal had the three points, and they go in to Wednesday's Champions League tie with Panathinaikos with their confidence restored.