Villarreal continued their excellent start to the season by beating Racing Santander 2-0 to stay in second place after six rounds of Primera Division matches.

The Yellow Submarine had hoped to go top of the table for the first time in their history, but those hopes were scuppered yesterday as leaders Valencia beat Athletic Bilbao to hold on to first place.

Nevertheless, a win to keep them within a point of their regional rivals never looked in doubt after the home side scored twice within 13 minutes.

Nilmar opened the scoring with his fifth goal of the season after eight minutes and Giuseppe Rossi doubled the hosts' lead five minutes later.

And those goals proved enough for Villarreal to seal their fifth straight Primera Division success since losing at Real Sociedad on the opening weekend.

Nilmar smashed home the opener to give the home side the lead after Rossi's shot was saved by Tono.

Racing had started well and the goal came as a big blow to the Cantabrians.

And there was worse to come as Rossi made it two five minutes later, when he latched on to Santi Cazorla's pass and clipped the ball over Tono.

Nilmar, the league's top scorer, hit the post later in the first half and missed a host of chances to add to his tally in the second period.

Racing offered little and, apart from Ivan Bolado's late effort, the visitors never looked likely to get back in it.

Villarreal stay second with 15 points, while Racing still have only four and sit third from bottom.


Team Line up:
Villarreal CF

Lineup [4-4-2]
13 D. Lopez | 6 Angel | 4 M. Musacchio | 5 C. Marchena | 11 J. Capdevila | 20 B. Valero | 19 M. Senna |
21 Bruno | 8 S. Cazorla | 22 G. Rossi | 7 Nilmar

Racing Santander
Lineup [4-4-2]

13 Tono | 14 P. Pinillos | 24 W. Ponce | 19 M. Torrejon | 6 D. Cisma | 16 Kennedy | 20 A. Tziolis | 21 P. Diop | 5 M. Lacen | 10 P. Munitis | 22 Ariel