Villarreal CF 0-1 RCD Espanyol de Barcelona: Primera Division Match Report, 30 October 2026

Villarreal CF 0-1 RCD Espanyol de Barcelona: goalless at the break, decided by one second-half goal, and won by a side that kicked off eighteenth. It was also Espanyol's first win over Villarreal on record: Villarreal had won all four previous league meetings, 2-1 and 2-0 away at Espanyol, 1-0 and 4-1 at the Estadio de la Cerámica.

Espanyol arrived with eight points from ten games — two wins, two draws, six defeats — and without a win in five since a 2-0 at Osasuna in mid-September. Their goal difference was only minus two, because five of the six defeats had been by a single goal: 1-2 against Real Madrid, at Real Sociedad, at Rayo Vallecano and at Racing de Santander, and 0-1 at home to Atlético. They had not scored more than once in a match since that win at Osasuna.

Villarreal were tenth on twelve points, and home form was the weak part of their season: one win in four at the Cerámica, with two defeats among them — 2-3 against Deportivo La Coruña and 1-2 against Real Betis. They came into this off a 2-1 win at Valencia six days earlier, having trailed at half-time.

That blank first half fitted both records: a home side with six goals from four home games against a visiting side that had stopped scoring freely.

Espanyol moved to eleven points from eleven games and their goal difference to minus one; the gap to Villarreal, four points at kick-off, is now one. All three of their wins this season have come without conceding: 3-0 against Levante on the opening weekend, 2-0 at Osasuna and 1-0 here. Their forty-six points last season, level with Real Sociedad, came at a slightly quicker rate than a point a game.

Villarreal stay on twelve from eleven, with their goal difference level at zero, and the Cerámica record now reads one win, one draw and three defeats from five. Against last season, when they finished third on seventy-two points at almost 1.9 a game, a rate of just over one is a steep fall. Eleven matches in, that is a poor start by any measure. For now, Villarreal sit a point above the club they have just lost to, and that club started the night in the bottom three.

This match opened a weekend the site did not cover: nothing here was updated from 30 October to 1 November, so there was no pick on it.