Villarreal 1 - Getafe 0

Villarreal: Barbosa; Javi Venta, Quique Alvarez, Fuentes, Arruabarrena; Marcos Senna, Josico (Tacchinardi 64'); Cani, Nihat (Guille Franco 72'), Marcos García (Somoza 82'); Diego Forlán. 4-2-3-1.
Getafe: Abbondanzieri; David Cortés, Belenguer, Alexis, Paredes; Celestini, Casquero (Pachón 81'); Mario Cotelo (Paunovic 70'), Redondo, Nacho (Sousa 23'); Manu Del Moral. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Villarreal: Quique Alvarez, Josico, Marcos García for Cygan, Somoza, Riquelme / Getafe: Redondo for Paunovic.

Goals:
1-0. 51. Abbondanzieri (own goal). Pushed ball in to own net after stopping header.

Villarreal moved up in to the top half of the table with a 1-0 win over Getafe, who themselves drop out of the European spots to seventh. Both sides had chances early on, with Forlán shooting wide in the first minute and Cotelo going close at the other end. But the locals were missing Riquelme, suffering from flu, and only an effort from Nihat caused any problems for Pato Abbondanzieri.

Abbondanzieri was to blame for the only goal of the game though soon after the restart, the Argentine keeper stopping Arruabarrena's header but then whipping the ball in to his own net trying to clear under pressure from Forlán. Manu del Moral had missed a header minutes before, but the goal took the wind out of the visitors' sails, and Marcos García and Marcos Senna both came close to increasing the lead late on. It was all too much for Getafe coach Bernd Schuster, who got himself sent off near the end for insulting the referee.