First Division - Day 17

Villarreal 1 - Valencia 0

Villarreal: Areola; Mario Gaspar, Musacchio, Víctor Ruíz, Adrián Marín; Jonathan Dos Santos (Nahuel 67’), Manu Trigueros (Tomás Pina 74’), Bruno, Denis Suárez; Soldado, Bakambu (Leo Baptistao 80’). 4-4-2.
Valencia: Jaume Domenech; Barragán (Santi Mina 69’), Rubén Vezo, Aderlan Santos, Abdennour, Cancelo; André Gomes, Dani Parejo (Fran Villalba 87’), Danilo Barbosa (Piatti 74’); Paco Alcácer, Negredo. 5-3-2.

Goals:
1-0. 64. Bruno. Curled free kick over defensive wall into far top corner of net.

Yellow cards: André Gomes 16’, Barragán 45’, Soldado 68’, Villalba 92’.

Villarreal ended the calendar year with a 1-0 victory over regional neighbours Valencia on New Year’s Eve which takes them above Celta to fourth place. The locals dominated the first half, Jonathan Dos Santos testing Domenech early on, and Soldado, Bruno and Bakambu all failing to find the target. Dani Parejo brought two good saves out of Areola after the restart and André Gomes had a couple of efforts blocked, but Denis Suárez shot just wide, and some twenty minutes in to the second half Bruno got what was to prove the only goal with a well struck free kick. It was a first defeat for the Ches under Gary Neville, and they have now only taken three points from the four games since the new coach took over from Nuno a month ago.