Villarreal held 1-1 by Malaga

Villarreal were held to a 1-1 draw by Malaga thanks to an early goal by Charles; the Submarine had the better of play in the first half but could not find a way through the Malaga defense.

In the second half, Villarreal equalized through a slightly dubious penalty decision, Bruno converting, but with 20 minutes to go, Roberto Soriano was shown an equally dubious red card for a foul off the ball. Villarreal played pretty well down a man and Kameni had to parry a Samu Castellejo shot away in injury time to preserve the tie, while Sergio Asenjo again performed some shot-stopping miracles in our goal.

The draw leaves Villarreal just a point ahead of Athletic Club (and Eibar, if they defeat Granada tomorrow) in the race for the final Europa league place. We are likely to be five points adrift of the CL spots.

Samu Castellejo looked bright against his old club when he came on, Bruno, Trigueros and the defense played well on the whole, but we continue to lack a cutting edge up front. Not the result we wanted ahead of Roma’s visit on Thursday....