Spanish La Liga: Red cards shown as Almeria hold Villarreal

Almeria and Villarreal both failed to take their chances in an eventful game which saw both teams reduced to 10 men but somehow finished goalless.

Mauro dos Santos was sent off for the hosts towards the end of the first half but Villarreal lost their numerical advantage in the 55th minute when Jaume Costa was shown a second yellow card.

Tomer Hemed missed a glaring chance for Almeria shortly afterwards but then Villarreal midfielder Tomas Pina squandered a similarly gilt-edged opportunity as the spoils were shared.

The draw sees Almeria climb above Granada and into 18th place in the Primera Division but they are still three points from escaping the relegation zone, while Villarreal fail to capitalise on Atletico Madrid's draw at Espanyol on Saturday and are seven points off fourth spot.

The first half was an open affair, with Almeria getting forward more frequently than the visitors, and the pace of Thievy Bifouma caused plenty of problems for Marcelino's side down the left-hand side. The Congolese could have opened the scoring in the first half after combining with Hemed in the area, but failed to find the target.

The first flashpoint in the game arrived in the 39th minute when Giovani dos Santos raced through a gap in the defence towards goal and was pushed to the ground by Mauro dos Santos outside the area, and the Brazilian defender was shown a straight red card.

Villarreal nearly capitalised immediately as Joel Campbell found space to shoot towards the top corner from the edge of the area, but his effort was beaten away by Julian Cuesta.

Despite losing Dos Santos, Almeria came out strong in the second half and could have taken the lead on two occasions in the space of a minute, but neither Hemed nor Michel Macedo could beat Sergio Asenjo.

Almeria continued to pour forward and Welington Silva's pace led to Costa bringing down the winger and earning a second yellow card. Just minutes after numerical parity was restored, Almeria created the clearest chance of the game.

Welington attacked down the right and squared to Hemed. First Asenjo parried the striker's shot but the rebound sat up perfectly for the Israeli and gave him an open goal to aim at, but he inexplicably ballooned the ball over the bar.

A few minutes later Villarreal forward Denis Cheryshev came down the left to pull the ball across the box, but Pina sent his shot wide of the far post as he slid in to meet the cross, passing up his side's best opportunity to break the deadlock.