Villarreal 1-1 Huesca: Submarine not safe yet

Villarreal drew 1-1 with Huesca in a scrappy match—a first half-goal by Pablo Fornals was canceled out by an Avila goal with 12 minutes left. (Ex-Villarreal player Moi Gomez provided the assist, of course—you just knew that would happen).

Javi Galan was able to play for Huesca, and he and Moi were their best players; for Villarreal, the middle of the pitch with Fornals, Funes Mori and Alvaro was pretty good, but our strikers seemed tired. We did have two days less rest than Huesca, let’s not forget.

So, here is the situation, with Rayo still to play today.

Villarreal 40; Celta 37; Levante 37; Girona 37; Valladolid 35

Huesca 30, Rayo 28.

These latter two are unimportant for Villarreal now since they cannot catch us (Rayo could get to 40, but Villarreal own the tiebreak).

Villarreal have Real Madrid away, Eibar at home and Getafe away. If Villarreal win any of those (Eibar obviously looking the most likely of the three, though certainly not a given) then they will have 43 points. Levante and Girona play each other, so whichever team loses that could only get to 43, and Villarreal owns the tiebreak over both.

40 points could be enough for safety, depending on results from:

Valladolid: home to Athletic Club, away to Rayo, home to Valencia. If they get only four points from those, we are safe.

Girona: away to Getafe, home to Levante, away to Alavés. If they get only three points from those, we are safe.

Levante: home to Rayo, away to Girona, home to Atleti. If they get only three points, we are safe.

We cannot clinch safety next week unless we win in the Bernabeu; a point there would be helpful though.