Villarreal beat Levante to tighten grip on 3rd place

Villarreal edged past Levante 1-0 on Wednesday in La Liga to open up a three-point gap above Atletico Madrid as they look to consolidate third place.

Marcelino Garcia Toral's side capitalised on fourth-place Atletico's heavy defeat by Rayo Vallecano last weekend thanks to Georges Mikautadze's 57th minute goal.

Levante, 19th, had more of the ball but Villarreal were lively on the counter-attack and found the breakthrough when Georgian international Mikautadze slotted home after home goalkeeper Mathew Ryan had been drawn out of position.

The match was initially scheduled for December but was postponed due to a warning for severe rain.