Europa League-chasing Villarreal held by strugglers Deportivo La Coruna

Deportivo La Coruna have picked up a precious point in their battle to avoid relegation from La Liga, although they were denied a first victory in two months by a stubborn Villarreal side.

The visitors came into the game without a win in their past 12 outings, but they almost edged ahead inside the first three minutes when Oriol Riera picked up the ball inside the box before forcing a save out of Juan Carlos.

A good passing move from the Yellow Submarine almost ended with Joel Campbell being played through on goal, only for the offside flag to be raised on the far side.

Things remained tight in what was a tense opening 45 minutes, with Juanfran the next player to try his luck with a shot that was always rising high over the bar.

The contest well and truly came to life shortly after the restart as two goals in the same number of minutes saw momentum swing both ways.

Jaume Costa opened the scoring with a well-taken strike, although Celso Borges was able to level things up with his shot from the edge of the box, which left goalkeeper Carlos rooted to the spot.

There was still plenty of time remaining for both sides to push forward in search of a winner, but a mixture of solid goalkeeping from Fabri to deny Luciano Vietto, combined with Lucas Perez's near miss up the other end, ensured that the contest remained all square.

The Brancoazuis stay inside the bottom three, having played a game more than 17th-placed Almeria, while Villarreal still look comfortable in their pursuit of a place in the Europa League.