Villarreal: Areola; Mario Gaspar, Musacchio, Víctor Ruíz, Adrián Marín; Jonathan Dos Santos (Tomás Pina 78’), Manu Trigueros (Samuel 66‘), Bruno, Denis Suárez; Soldado, Bakambu (Leo Baptistao 71’). 4-4-2.
Sporting: Cuéllar; Lora, Luis Hernández, Bernardo (Jorge Meré 39‘), Isma López (Guerrero 69‘); Omar Mascarell, Nacho Cases; Carmona (Jony 64‘), Halilovic, Alex Menéndez; Sanabria. 4-2-3-1.
Goals:
1-0. 26. Bakambu. Got on the end of Soldado cross to turn ball past Cuéllar.
2-0. 51. Bakambu. Collected Soldado centre and curled shot in off far post.
Yellow cards: Carmona 33’, Bruno 53’, Víctor Ruíz 61’, Samuel 79’, Soldado 87’, Nacho Cases 87’.
Villarreal stay a point behind third placed Real Madrid after a 2-0 victory over Sporting Gijón in this Sunday’s mid-day game, and they have now opened up an eight point gap over fifth placed Celta. The early chances fell to the home side, Bakambu heading over and Cuéllar having to save from Denis Suárez. Areola had to turn a Sanabria header for a corner though, and a long throw-in from Luis Hernández bounced past everyone into the net, but soon afterwards Bruno and Soldado combined to set up Bakambu for the opener. Halilovic fired a couple of efforts wide of the mark either side of half time, but once again Bakambu struck, the Congolese forward picking up a long centre from Soldado before steering a shot past Cuéllar and in off the far post. It could have been more had Leo Baptistao not been tackled by Omar when free on goal in injury time, but it was another defeat for the Asturians though, and they end the weekend further down in the bottom three.