La Real and Villarreal give up ground

Real Sociedad de Fútbol's hopes of catching fourth-placed Athletic Club took a dent as they drew 1-1 at CA Osasuna, while Villarreal CF's ambitions of achieving UEFA Champions League football also suffered.

It appeared La Real would close within four points of their Basque neighbours when they went ahead on seven minutes thanks to Chori Castro's cool finish. However, Oriol Riera found the target on 59 minutes for the struggling hosts, heading in Roberto Torres's free-kick after earlier hitting the woodwork.

That result leaves La Real a point ahead of Villarreal, who were held 1-1 at home by Elche FC. The visitors went ahead via a Damián Suárez penalty on 31 minutes after Alberto Botía had been fouled by Jérémy Perbet, but Jonathan Pereira got the equaliser two minutes before the break, slotting in from Moi Gómez's clever pass.

Valencia CF failed to move within six points of Villarreal as they suffered a 3-1 home loss to Getafe CF. Starting the day in the relegation places, Getafe fell behind to an Eduardo Vargas strike but emerged victors thanks to efforts from Ángel Lafita, Ciprian Marica and Pedro León, while Los Che had captain Jérémy Mathieu dismissed late on.

As for Real Valladolid CF, they moved out of the relegation places and above UD Almería by condemning their rivals to a 1-0 defeat, Manucho tapping in after six minutes before Almería lost Marco Torsiglieri to a red card.