Villarreal 1-2 Espanyol: Survival dream alive and kicking under Abelardo

Villarreal fell to a home defeat against Espanyol at Estadio de La Ceramica on Sunday. Villarreal went into the match knowing victory after winning their previous two matches against Real Sociedad away and Getafe at home stadium, by 1-2 and 1-0 respectively while Espanyol had to settle for a draw in the last match played of the competition. Following today's result, Villarreal is 9th in the LaLiga table with 28 points from 20 matches, while Espanyol sits 20th with 14 points after 20 matches.

 The game started favourably for Espanyol, thanks to a good early goal from David Lopez in the 5th minute. Later, Espanyol scored once more and increased their advantage 0-2 thanks to a goal from Raul De Tomas in the 47th minute just before the end of the 45 minutes, which saw the first half to a 0-2.

 Villarreal took the lead in the second half, with a goal from Santi Cazorla 62 minutes in the game, and the game ended 1-2.

 As for substitutions, both coaches used full substitutions. For Villarreal Moi Gomez, Ruben Pena and Javier Ontiveros came on for Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Mario Gaspar and Alberto Moreno, while Espanyol brought on Victor Sanchez, Fernando Calero and Ander Iturraspe to replace Jonathan Calleri, Oscar Melendo and David Lopez.

 The referee booked Manu Trigueros from Villarreal, while for Espanyol Didac Vila, Javi Lopez and Raul De Tomas saw a yellow card and Javi Lopez saw the red card.

 Villarreal with their next fixture against Alavés at away stadium, while Espanyol will face Athletic at home stadium.