Espanyol 1 - Villarreal 2

Espanyol: Kameni; Armando Sá (Riera 59'), Jarque, Moisés Hurtado, David García, Domi (Zabaleta 46'); Corominas, Costa, Ito (Juanfran 72'), De la Peña; Luis García. 5-4-1.
Villarreal: Viera; Javi Venta, Quique Alvarez, Peña, Arruabarrena; Josico, Marcos Senna (Roger 87'); José Marí (Valencia 74'), Riquelme, Sorín (Tacchinardi 68'); Diego Forlán. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Espanyol: Moisés Hurtado, Corominas, Ito, De la Peña for Lopo, Juanfran, Fredson, Riera / Villarreal: Quique Alvarez, Josico, Sorín for Gonzalo Rodríguez, Tacchinardi, Cazorla.

Goals:
0-1. 45. Josico. Beat Kameni with shot on the turn after corner not cleared.
1-1. 60. Luis García. Shot through Peña's legs from close up at second attempt.
1-2. 66. Marcos Senna. First time shot low past keeper from outside of area.

Villarreal climbed off the bottom of the table with a 1-2 victory at Espanyol, their first win of the season in the league. Although Pellegrini's side had an important Champions League game coming up, the manager decided that he needed to put out a strong side to put some points on the board. However they found themselves pinned back right from the start, and could have gone behind had Luis García not headed Armando's Sá's cross against the bar. And the same two players combined again a few minutes later, Viera spilling a cross from his ex team mate but then recovering quickly to block the shot from the striker.

The visitors started to make some headway though, and Diego Forlán almost caught out Kameni with a back header from Riquelme's chipped free kick. The keeper kept out another effort from José Marí a few minutes later, but could not prevent Josico's shot from squeezing inside the post following a corner kick on the stroke of half time.

The goal caught Espanyol by surprise, but after the restart they pushed forward looking for the equaliser. Luis García just failed to get on the end of a dangerous cross from Zabaleta, but on the hour mark the striker did get the goal he wanted after running on to a headed pass by Riera (who had just come on seconds earlier), his first effort blocked by Viera but a second attempt passing between the legs of Peña. But only six minutes later Marcos Senna latched on to a loose ball on the edge of the area to fire a low shot wide of Kameni to win the match.