Villarreal 1 - Barcelona 2

Villarreal: Diego López; Ángel, Gonzalo, Godín, Capdevila; Marcos Senna (Ibagaza 79'), Eguren; Cani (Guille Franco 71'), Pires, Cazorla; Rossi (Nihat 71'). 4-2-3-1.
Barcelona: Víctor Valdés; Daniel Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Abidal; Xavi, Keita, Sergio Busquets (Touré Yaya 67'); Messi, Eto'o (Hleb 84'), Henry (Martín Cáceres 80'). 4-3-3.

Team changes: Villarreal: Cani, Rossi for Ibagaza, Llorente / Barcelona: Piqué, Keita, Busquets for Márquez, Touré Yayá, Gudjohnsen.

Goals:
1-0. 48. Cani. Ran on to Rossi through ball and turned shot past Víctor Valdés.
1-1. 55. Keita. Got ahead of Diego López to head Dani Alves cross in to net.
1-2. 66. Henry. Connected with Xavi cross to steer shot inside far post.

Yellow cards: Piqué 70', 74', Xavi 74', Guille Franco 79', Angel 87', Cazorla 88' / red cards: Piqué 74'.

Barcelona moved a whopping ten points clear at the top of the table after coming from behind to beat fourth placed Villarreal 1-2. The game got off to a lively start, Henry going close a couple of times before Rossi shot just wide at the other end. Diego López pulled out a spectacular save from a Busquets volley, Messi just failed to hit the target and Valdés did well to keep out Rossi shortly before the break.

The goals started to flow after the restart though, Cani running through to pick up Rossi's pass and open the scoring just three minutes in to the second half. But a few minutes later Keita got ahead of Diego López to head in a Dani Alves cross to equalise, and the keeper had to be on his toes soon afterwards to save from Eto'o.

Midway through the second half Henry turned in Xavi's cross to put the visitors ahead. With a quarter of an hour to go though Barça were reduced to ten men after Piqué was shown a rigorous second yellow card, and the locals came close to levelling the scores when Senna fired a free kick over the top, and then Guille Franco clipped a shot wide of the post. Guardiola's side held fast though to make it maximum points from the last four games against their closest rivals.