Villarreal moved into LaLiga’s fifth and final UEFA Champions League qualification spot with a 1-0 victory over RCD Espanyol at the Estadio de la Ceramica, racking up their fifth straight victory over the Catalan outfit.

On paper, this was a golden opportunity for Villarreal to use their game in hand over their main rivals for Europe's top table, Real Betis.

Just before the quarter-hour mark, Juan Foyth met a Nicolas Pepe cross into the box and was flattened in a midair duel with Joan Garcia. Referee Juan Munuera initially awarded a penalty, but quickly reversed that call after consulting the VAR monitor.

A quick break forward saw an initial shot from Santi Comesana parried away by Garcia and tucked in by Thierno Barry, but an offside call ensured that the Frenchman would be forced to wait for his 11th goal of the season.

As the second half kicked off, some of the Villarreal faithful may have been wondering if there was some psychological baggage from a run of just one win in four league outings.

But they needn’t have worried, as the hosts finally broke the deadlock in the 52nd minute with some static defending from Espanyol allowing Comesana to find Pepe, whose slick pass found a lurking Yeremy Pino inside the box. Without hesitation, Pino side-footed beyond a statuesque Garcia for his third goal of the campaign.

The goal also marked his first goalscoring appearance in meetings with Espanyol since February 2022. That goal had been the first of four for him in a 5-1 rout, but after a disallowed Villarreal goal, Espanyol refused to collapse as they did back then and rallied beyond the hour mark.

They duly created two good chances to equalise, both of which fell to Javi Puado, who firstly forced a save from Luiz Junior on the half volley, before hitting the side netting with an attempted finish at the far post from a long cross.

Espanyol lacked the firepower to punish that, duly seeing their unbeaten league run ended at five games. Meanwhile, Villarreal’s Champions League fate is now back in their own hands with five LaLiga rounds remaining.