Madrid, Jan 24 (IANS) Villarreal climbed out of the bottom three of the Spanish La Liga football with a 3-0 win over Sporting Gijon.
The win lifted Villarreal over Sporting in the league table and Granada, who slipped into the bottom three after appointing Abel Resino as their new coach.
The Monday win was the Villarreal’s first triumph in the league since November and marked the first triumph for new coach Jose Molina, who replaced Juan Carlos Garrido just before Christmas, Xinhua reported.
Villarreal showed a greater urgency throughout the game than their rivals and they got their reward in the 57th minute when striker Marco Ruben, fought his way through the Sporting defence before beating goalkeeper Juan Pablo with a low shot.
Two minutes later Borja Valero, who has been linked with a possible move to Atletico Madrid, scored with a powerful shot from outside of the penalty area and the win was sealed in injury time when Bruno Soriano connected with another shot from outside of the 18 yard box.
Villarreal have 19 points from their first 19 matches of the season, but given that the club is negotiating to sell Brazilian striker Nilmar to Santos and Giuseppe Rossi missing the rest of the season with a knee injury, the club will need to make signings before the end of January to ensure they have enough firepower to keep them far away from the relegation zone.