Villarreal moved to within two points of third-placed Sevilla in the Primera Liga thanks to a narrow victory over battling Espanyol.
Fabricio Fuentes grabbed the only goal of the game with a header in the 20th minute but the hosts were grateful to keeper Diego Lopez for a string of superb saves.
The one time he was beaten, by Luiz Garcia's 66th-minute penalty, the woodwork came to his rescue.
Villarreal were in the ascendancy from the off and could have gone ahead in the fourth minute but Kahveci Nihat fired just wide of the near post.
Twice the hosts looked to be in promising positions only to lose the ball before getting their shot away, but out of nothing they could have fallen behind.
Diego Godin headed past his own keeper under pressure and Diego Lopez did brilliantly to get back and collect the ball and prevent it going over the goalline.
While Villarreal's custodian was distinguishing himself, his Espanyol counterpart, Carlos Kameni, played a major role in the hosts taking the lead.
Ariel Ibagaza swung in a corner, which Kameni came for but got nowhere near, allowing Fuentes to head into an empty net.
Villarreal moved back into the top four for the first time since the 15th round of the campaign after beating Numancia in their last home match two weeks ago and will hope to qualify for the Champions League again this season.
Manuel Pellegrini's side are still in Europe's premier club competition but qualifying for the quarter-finals now appears a tough task after the Yellow Submarine could only draw 1-1 at home to Panathinaikos in the first leg of the teams' last-16 tie two weeks ago.
The two sides now meet in Athens on Tuesday, and Pellegrini chose to rest top scorer Guiseppe Rossi.
Espanyol, meanwhile, find themselves immersed in a relegation battle and offered little going forward in the first half aside from a couple of dangerous crosses.
The Catalans moved off the bottom of the table following a surprise 2-1 win at city rivals Barcelona two weeks ago, but were unable to build on that success last weekend as they went down 2-0 at home to Real Madrid.
Having won only four matches all season, Espanyol's hopes would not have been high going into the second half but they very nearly engineered an equalizer in the opening minutes.
Substitute Rufete, back after injury, played a lovely ball out wide and Anderson Nene's cross was headed powerfully towards goal by Luis Garcia.
It looked a certain goal but somehow Diego Lopez stuck a hand out to palm the ball to safety.
The visitors then had a let-off of their own when Ibagaza could only fire well over the bar from 10 yards out following Angel Lopez's cut-back.
The chances were coming thick and fast now, and Espanyol's Raul Tamudo should have done much better than shoot over from a brilliant position at the back post.
The clearest opening was still to come, however, with the visitors awarded a penalty in the 66th minute after a foul on Nene by Godin.
But still the breakthrough would not come as Luis Garcia's spotkick hit the underside of the bar and bounced down and away.
Diego Lopez was beaten on that occasion but he produced another wonder save in the 76th minute, tipping over Daniel Jarque's fierce header to preserve an unlikely clean sheet.
