Gerard Moreno was Villarreal’s hero with a goal and assist in a 2-1 win over Real Madrid, giving LaLiga leaders Barcelona a chance to move ahead in the title race.
Yeremy Pino opened the scoring for Villarreal just after the break before Karim Benzema’s 60th minute penalty drew Real level, but parity lasted only three minutes as Moreno also fired home from the spot to secure the points.
Real stay second, level on 38 points with Barca who visit fourth-placed Atletico Madrid on Sunday, while Villarreal’s third straight league win moves them up to fifth.
Substitute Arnaut Danjuma squandered a golden opportunity to seal the game for Villarreal in added time, missing an open goal with his effort from the halfway line as Courtois was stranded deep in opposition territory after going up for a corner.
Ancelotti acknowledged that his side had been outplayed by their opponents, saying: “We couldn’t play at their level.
“We were bad, especially in defence. We tried to create but we were too open in midfield. We should have done more.”
Juve make it eight wins in a row
Juventus stretched their winning streak to eight matches as they scraped past Udinese 1-0 in Serie A on Saturday.
Danilo scored the decisive goal four minutes from time thanks to a fabulous assist from Federico Chiesa.
Massimiliano Allegri’s side have also not conceded a goal in their last eight matches despite being rocked by in-house issues over the winter break when the club’s board of directors resigned en masse and the Turin prosecutors office requested indictments.
Juventus moved into second place in Serie A, a point above defending champion AC Milan, which hosts Roma on Sunday.
There was a moving tribute to Gianluca Vialli before kick-off as well as a minutes silence, which preceded all matches in Serie A this weekend.
Vialli, who died on Friday, helped Juventus to a Serie A title and the European Cup during a four-year stint.
The Juventus players also wore black armbands, while there were many banners in the stands dedicated to Vialli as well as chants from the supporters.
But those chants turned to jeers at half-time after a less than impressive performance. Udinese goalkeeper Marco Silvestri did, however, have to pull off remarkable stops, notably to keep out Daniele Rugani’s header.
Juventus eventually broke the deadlock with impressive play from Chiesa, who chested down a ball over the top before volleying across the face of goal for Danilo to tap in from point-blank range at the back post.
Fourth-placed Inter Milan’s Serie A title hopes took a hit after Luca Caldirola’s last-gasp equaliser earned lowly Monza a 2-2 draw at the Stadio Brianteo.
Inter went ahead through Matteo Darmian after 10 minutes when he met Alessandro Bastoni’s cross by getting ahead of his marker and tapping the ball in from close-range.
Monza replied a minute later when Patrick Ciurria was found inside the box by Matteo Pessina and had just enough time and space to curl the ball into the lower left corner.
Lautaro Martinez then put Inter ahead again in the 22nd minute when he stole possession from Pablo Mari inside the area and fired the ball into the far corner.
However Caldirola spoiled the party for Inter three minutes into stoppage time when he headed home the equaliser from inside the box.
Earlier on Saturday, Nicolas Gonzalez marked his comeback from a lengthy injury lay-off by scoring a stoppage-time penalty to help Fiorentina beat Sassuolo 2-1.
The spot-kick was awarded after Sassuolo defender Ruan Tressoldi blocked Aleksa Terzic’s shot with his arm.
Half-time substitute Riccardo Saponara gave Fiorentina the lead three minutes after the break but Domenico Berardi levelled from the spot nine minutes later.