Primera Division: Villarreal and Cordoba fight out 0-0 draw

Villarreal and Cordoba continue their long respective waits for a league win after playing out an exciting 0-0 draw at El Madrigal.

Cordoba will be grateful to their goalkeeper Juan Carlos for making a series of impressive saves in the second half to keep the match goalless, but Villarreal will also view this game as a missed opportunity to put an end to their eight-game winless streak, against the league's bottom side.

Cordoba move on to 20 points for the season thanks to this draw but are eight points from safety with six games of the season left and remain without a win in the second half of the season.

Villarreal stay sixth and are now six points ahead of Malaga in seventh thanks to this draw, but they will be concerned about the fact they have not won a match since March 8.

Yellow Submarine coach Marcelino remarked that the recent home defeats to Sevilla and Espanyol had "damaged" his side but they made a bright start here, with Manu Trigueros sending a free header over the bar in the opening minute, and then Joel Campell hammered the crossbar with a left-footed drive from outside the area.

Cordoba began to settle into the game after a quarter of an hour.

A dangerous cross from former Manchester United man Bebe lead to a scramble in the Villarreal box and then the Portuguese winger forced Sergio Asenjo to tip his stinging effort away from his near post.

Villarreal hit the bar for a second time when Gerard Moreno smashed a shot against the upright after 23 minutes, and the young forward also came close minutes before the break as his shot was deflected wide by his team-mate Mario Gaspar.

Denis Cheryshev forced Juan Carlos into his first proper save of the match five minutes into the second half, the goalkeeper tipping the Russian's header around his near post.

The custodian then made three outstanding saves in the final 20 minutes.

First he punched Campbell's curling effort away from the top corner, then he got down low to keep out Victor Ruiz's header, and in the final minute the 27-year-old leaped to his left-hand side to keep out another curled drive from Campbell.