Madrid, Spain (SportsNetwork.com) - Luciano Vietto's goal in the 85th minute was the difference as Villarreal claimed a 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid at the Vicente Calderon on Sunday.
Atletico entered Sunday's fixture three points back of second-place Barcelona, and the defending champions were riding a 27-game home unbeaten streak in league play as well.
However, Atletico was unable to keep that streak going as Vietto scored a fine goal five minutes from time to lift the Yellow Submarine into the top six, while the home side is now seven points back of leaders Real Madrid.
The match took a while to produce any clear cut chances, but it came to life after the break with Villarreal goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo coming up with a nice stop on Atletico's Mario Mandzukic, who turned and had his shot saved by Asenjo from six yards.
Mandzukic then had a goal controversially ruled out for a foul in the 58th minute, while Atletico went close again with chances from Diego Godin and Tiago.
But it was the visitors who made the most of a rare chance five minutes from time as Vietto got on the other end of a pass from Moi Gomez before beating Godin and firing a shot home from the edge of the penalty area.
Sevilla remains in fourth place after being held to a 0-0 draw at home by Eibar, Cristian Stuani helped Espanyol claim three points against Granada as he scored the winning goal in the 90th minute of a 2-1 victory, while Athletic Bilbao earned a 1-1 draw at Real Sociedad thanks to a second-half goal from Oscar de Marcos which canceled out Carlos Vela's third-minute opener.
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