{"id":48974,"date":"2026-04-24T12:04:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=48974"},"modified":"2026-04-24T12:04:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:04:35","slug":"villarreal-held-by-oviedo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=48974","title":{"rendered":"Villarreal held by Oviedo"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Villarreal moved closer to securing third place in La Liga with a 1-1 draw at Real Oviedo on Thursday, while another defeat left Sevilla teetering on the brink of the relegation zone.<\/p>\n<p>Nicolas Pepe&#8217;s first-half penalty looked to have been enough to send Villarreal seven points clear of Atletico Madrid, but Ilyas Chaira&#8217;s strike midway through the second period ensured the spoils were shared.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the result, Villarreal moved to 62 points and boast a five-point cushion over fourth-placed Atletico, who are on a four-match losing streak in the league.<br \/>\nReal Oviedo, who were looking to make it three wins from three, remain bottom of La Liga, six points away from safety.<\/p>\n<p>Former Arsenal winger Pepe won and converted a penalty on 13 minutes to put the visitors in front.<\/p>\n<p>But Oviedo levelled in the 69th minute as Ilyas&#8217; heavily-deflected effort left goalkeeper Arnau Tenas with no chance.<\/p>\n<p>Ayoze Perez came within inches of winning it for Villarreal inside the final 10 minutes but his effort came off the bar and bounced to safety from the goal-line.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, seven-time Europa League and UEFA Cup winners Sevilla sank further into the relegation battle as they went down 2-0 at Levante.<br \/>\nIvan Romero netted in the 38th minute to put the 19th-placed hosts in front, before adding a second late on to secure all three points for Levante.<\/p>\n<p>Sevilla languish in 17th place, one point above Alaves in the final relegation spot.<\/p>\n<p>Victory for Levante gave them hope of escaping the drop zone as they climbed to 32 points &#8212; two behind the Andalusians and safety.<\/p>\n<p>Rayo Vallecano put some distance between themselves and the relegation dogfight courtesy of a 1-0 win at home to Espanyol.<br \/>\nSergio Camello&#8217;s 87th-minute winner took Rayo to 38 points and 11th place, one spot ahead of the Catalans on goal difference.<br \/>\nOn Friday, Real Madrid will look to close the gap, provisionally, to Liga leaders Barcelona when they visit Real Betis.<\/p>\n<p>Alvaro Arbeloa&#8217;s charges sit nine points behind their arch-rivals and know a victory early in the weekend&#8217;s round of matches will amp up the pressure on Barcelona 24 hours after the news that star Blaugrana attacker Lamine Yamal will miss the rest of the season with a hamstring injury.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Villarreal moved closer to securing third place in La Liga with a 1-1 draw at Real Oviedo on Thursday, while another defeat left Sevilla teetering on the brink of the relegation zone. Nicolas Pepe&#8217;s first-half penalty looked to have been enough to send Villarreal seven points clear of Atletico Madrid, but Ilyas Chaira&#8217;s strike midway [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}