Goals from Alfonso Pedraza and Moi Gómez gave Villarreal a 2-0 win at Barcelona on Sunday and secured a place in the Europa Conference League after finishing seventh in La Liga.
After reaching the semi-finals of this season’s Champions League, Unai Emery’s side headed into the final week of the season threatening to miss out on European competition altogether.
With the top six already established, Villarreal started the day in seventh place, a point ahead of Athletic Bilbao, who were playing fourth-placed Sevilla at the same time.
They had to win at the Camp Nou to qualify against a second-placed Barça side that had nothing left to play and little to fight for.
Pedraza opened the set with a precise shot in the 40th minute after receiving a fine through ball from Dani Parejo, and Gómez sealed the win in the 54th minute by scoring a powerful close-range strike after Adama Traoré made a mistake trying to clear the ball from his own area.
In the end, Athletic lost 1-0 to Sevilla to finish eighth, four points behind Villarreal. Betis and Real Sociedad qualified for the Europa League in fifth and sixth place respectively. Champions Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético and Sevilla qualified for the Champions League.
Alaves, Levante and Granada were relegated to the second division. Granada went down after a goalless draw against Espanyol at home, while Cádiz and Mallorca won their respective matches to stay ahead.
Granada started the day 16th, one point ahead of Mallorca and Cadiz. Granada had a golden opportunity to win their game when Leandro Cabrera was awarded a penalty for a handball inside the box in the 70th minute, but 40-year-old Jorge Molina sent the penalty just wide of Diego Lopez’s right post.
Mallorca, who lost seven straight games between late February and early April, completed their impressive comeback since the arrival of Mexico coach Javier Aguirre with a 2-0 win at Osasuna.
“I couldn’t sleep for several weeks, wracked by this fear and agony and now what we’ve achieved is just incredible,” said Mallorca’s Angel Rodriguez. “It’s been a tough season, some really tough days for us, our families and the fans, but we fought to the end and it was worth it. I can’t believe we made it.”
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