Villarreal maintained their push for Champions League football next season with a late 1-0 win at Girona on Saturday in La Liga. The Yellow Submarine, fifth, with the top five qualifying, needed an 89th-minute header from Karl Etta Eyong to snatch victory at the Montilivi against a struggling Girona side. The Catalans were without coach Michel Sanchez as he is under observation in hospital as a “precaution”, Girona said Friday, against an undisclosed ailment. Villarreal dominated the game but only found a breakthrough when Alfonso Pedraza’s cross found Cameroon-born midfielder Eyong.

Victory puts Villarreal level with fourth-placed Athletic Bilbao on 61 points, four ahead of Real Betis, sixth, who host Osasuna on Sunday.

Mallorca, ninth, kept their hopes of European football alive with a 2-1 win over relegated Real Valladolid. 

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