VILLAREAL: Etienne Capoue scored twice to seal a dominant 4-2 win for Villareal over 10-man Espanyol on Thursday and improved the side’s chances to qualify for the European championships. 

Valencia edged past Valladolid 2-1 thanks to a late strike from Javier Moreno in the dying minutes of an exciting contest.

Villarreal moved up to fifth on the table with 50 points, one ahead of sixth-placed Real Betis and five behind fourth-placed Real Sociedad. Espanyol are in the relegation zone with only 28 points in 31 matches this season.

Barcelona top the standing and are likely to win their first title since 2019 with a nine-point advantage over arch-rivals Real Madrid, who are on second place with 65 points.

Valencia, on the other hand, stay afloat of the relegation zone with the latest win, taking 16th place on the table while Valladolid remained 14th.

Espanyol opened the scoring through Javi Puado just before halftime but Villareal rebounded after the break finding the equalizer in the 53rd minute when Capoue slotted in the right-footed shot from outside the box.

Daniel Parejo took the lead for Villareal 10 minutes later from the very close range following a set piece situation.

Espanyol, however, rebounded and brought the game to a 2-2 stalemate in the 73rd minute when Joselu fired in from the centre of the box after Martin Braithwaite’s superb assist.

Nicolas Jackson put his team back into the lead seven minutes later after Alberto Moreno set him up with a fine through ball.

Capoue hit another one in the additional time to wrap up the game for Espanyol who were reduced to 10 men at the end.

In another La Liga fixture on Thursday, Sevilla broke Atheltic Club’s three-game winning streak with a late decider scored by Lucas Ocampos in stoppage time.

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