Barcelona saw their lead at the top of La Liga cut back to one point after Sevilla beat Athletic Bilbao 4-1 earlier on Sunday while Real Madrid are just one point further back in third after beating Valencia 2-1 on Saturday.

The man who will have to take the blame for both of Villarreal's goals is Barcelona defender and former French international Lilian Thuram who, in this game at least, confirmed his critics' view that he is now too slow for top class football.

Against the run of play, Barcelona having had much the better of the first half, Robert Pires opened the scoring after 56 minutes, running free after Thuram had failed to properly execute Barca's off-side trap.

Barcelona continued to press but Thuram failed to contain Villarreal's Diego Forlan on one of the home side's counter-attacks and Marcos Garcia was left with a clear shot on goal five minutes before the end.

Ronaldinho nearly got a consolation goal for Barca in injury time but his shot hit the cross bar and their defeat leaves La Liga wide open with seven games to play.

Sevilla had thrashed Athletic Bilbao earlier on Sunday to keep up the pressure on Barca and continue their pursuit of an unprecedented treble.

"It's going to be a frantic end to the season," commented Sevilla coach Juande Ramos.

In addition to challenging for their first La Liga crown since 1946, Sevilla are also in the Spanish Cup and UEFA Cup semifinals.

"We don't have any order of priority, we can only take one game at a time," added Ramos.

After Luis Fabiano had put a penalty against the post in the first half, Sevilla sprang to life after the break.

Fabiano made up for his miss quickly after the break when he provided a superb defence-splitting pass for Sevilla's Russian striker Aleksander Kerzhakov to score from 15 yards after 49 minutes.

Antonio Puerta and Ernesto Chevanton added further goals for Sevilla before Franciso Yeste got one back for Athletic with a header after 74 minutes.

However, Sevilla were not finished and Fabiano got himself among the goalscorers eight minutes from time.

Two goals in three minutes by Brazilian striker Ewerton gave Real Zaragoza a 2-0 win over struggling Celta Vigo on Sunday and moved them up to fourth place.

Celta had the best of the early chances in the sweltering temperatures, twice going close through another Brazilian striker Nene, but Ewerton's arrival after 68 minutes changed the course of the game.

"It was like playing in an inferno," reflected Zaragoza coach Victor Fernandez, commenting about the heat.

"We lacked any sort of individual inspiration and it was an even game until Ewerton came on, but he was like a breath of fresh air," added Fernandez.

After 72 minutes, Ewerton unleashed a stunning right foot thunderbolt from outside the area to break the deadlock and then used his left foot to get Zaragoza's second strike. Celta stay one place above the relegation zone despite the loss but are now only ahead of Levante on goal difference after the Valencia-based side drew 1-1 with Getafe.

Levante's Ghanaian winger Riga Mustapha stabbed a loose ball home in a goalmouth scramble after just four minutes but Getafe equalised just before the hour through David Belenguer.

Gimnastic Tarragona's chances of avoiding an immediate return to the Spanish second division worsened when the bottom club went down 1-0 at Real Mallorca.

"We are going to carry on playing as well as we can but I don't have a crystal ball. If we play as well as we did last week (when they beat Zaragoza) then we can still survive," said Gimnastic coach Paco Flores.

"But I'm not going to try and trick anyone nor build up anybody's dreams," added Flores, well aware that time is running out.

Mallorca's Victor Casadesus got the only goal of the game after 20 minutes with a low hard-driven right foot shot from just inside the area.