Sevilla all but booked their Champions League berth with a well-worked victory over Villarreal this evening which severely dents their opponents' hopes of securing a place in Europe's premier club competition.
Luis Fabiano opened the scoring shortly before the hour mark and, although Villarreal were handed a lifeline when Abdoulay Konko was sent off 18 minutes from time, Frederic Kanoute scored 10 minutes later to leave Sevilla five points clear of their hosts.
Villarreal's chances of joining Sevilla in Europe's elite will take a severe beating if fourth-placed Valencia, who currently have a one-point advantage over them, triumph at Espanyol.
The hosts had the better of what few chances there were in a tight first half and Nihat Kahveci almost got them off to the perfect start when his effort from the edge of the area flew wide of the right upright.
Kanoute had a better opportunity minutes later but he failed to control Diego Perotti's cross when he was in a good position in the area and the ball rolled away from him.
Nihat came closest to breaking the deadlock in the 12th minute with a free-kick near the left byline. Where most would have whipped in a cross, the Turkey striker curled in a shot which took everyone by surprise not least Andres Palop but, to the Sevilla goalkeeper's relief, it hit the crossbar.
In a period of sustained pressure by Villarreal they had another good opportunity shortly afterwards when Nihat's cross was cleared by Sebastien Squillaci but only as far as Sebastian Eguren, who could not control his effort and blazed over from just outside the area.
Sevilla had not even had a shot on target for over 40 minutes but they were the first to have the ball in the back of the net. However, Kanoute's header three minutes from the interval was rightly ruled offside.
Gonzalo Rodriguez almost broke the deadlock six minutes after the break but he headed Nihat's free-kick straight into Palop's hands.
Sevilla took the lead in the 58th minute with their first real chance of the match when Luis Fabiano beat the offside trap to run onto Kanoute's through-ball into the box and drill it under Diego Lopez and into the back of the net.
The goal sparked the game into life and Villarreal almost grabbed an instant equalizer as, in a penalty-box scramble, Eguren headed Ariel Ibagaza's cross just wide of the right upright.
Luis Fabiano came close to bagging a second moments later but he headed inches wide.
Villarreal were desperate to restore parity and almost did so in a crazy few minutes for the hosts.
First some awful Sevilla defending saw the ball fall to the ever-dangerous Nihat, who was to be denied by a great save from Palop.
And moments later Villarreal fans and players were left fuming at the referee when he waved play on after Julien Escude looked to have handled Cani's cross.
Seconds later, however, the hosts were boosted by the sending off of Konko for a second bookable offense.
They almost made the man advantage count immediately but Palop pulled off a great save to deny Eguren from close range.
Nihat should have leveled matters 11 minutes from time when Angel Lopez picked out an unmarked Nihat on the edge of the six-yard box but he headed wide when he really should have scored.
They were to rue that missed opportunity as six minutes later Kanoute sealed the victory, racing almost from the halfway line before unleashing a superb left-footed half-volley into the far corner.
