Deportivo la Coruna 1-0 Villarreal

Villarreal have made the worst start to a season in their history after falling to an undeserved defeat at Deportivo la Coruna.

Juca's eighth-minute goal was enough to hand all the points to Depor as a brilliant performance from Daniel Aranzubia kept Villarreal at bay.

Villarreal coach Ernesto Valverde, who replaced Manuel Pellegrini, will be feeling the heat after picking up just two points from the opening five games.

Juca's presence had been a doubt but the Brazilian made the starting line-up and opened the scoring with a stunning free-kick into the bottom left corner.

However, there will be questions posed to Villarreal goalkeeper Diego Lopez as to why he opted to have only a three-man wall.

That was to be Juca's only contribution to the game as shortly afterwards he began to limp and was substituted in the 19th minute.

Villarreal should have hit back immediately but Ruben Cani's cross just eluded Joseba Llorente and Manuel Pablo was on hand to clear the danger and prevent Giuseppe Rossi from almost certainly equalising.

Javi Venta had a decent opportunity in the 16th minute and Depor goalkeeper Aranzubia did well to save his powerful long-range effort.

The visitors were desperate for the equaliser and would have got it in the 24th minute if Alberto Lopo had not intercepted Joan Capdevila's cross with Llorente lurking in a very dangerous position.

Villarreal were hit by a blow shortly after the half-hour mark when Diego Godin was forced off the pitch having failed to shake off the injury he had sustained 10 minutes earlier when he went for a header.

There were nevertheless positive signs from Valverde's men as they had the lion's share of chances, however Depor were arguably creating the more danger from their few opportunities and should have extended their lead six minutes from half-time.

A swift one-two between Filipe and Andres Guardado saw the former set up an unmarked Lassad but the Tunisian's shot was woefully tame and Lopez was able to make a comfortable save.

Villarreal came agonisingly close to levelling matters immediately after the interval but Aranzubia pulled of an astonishing diving save at the foot of his right post to keep out Llorente's point-blank header, with the striker already on the verge of wheeling away in celebration.

The shots were beginning to fly in thick and fast from Villarreal and Santi Cazorla should have equalised only to be denied twice by brilliant stops from Aranzubia.

Rossi almost levelled on the hour mark but his effort from just outside the area flew inches wide of the right hand post.

However, it was Depor who went closest to scoring minutes later when Guardado put a tantalising cross into the six-yard box and Pablo Alvarez slid in to meet it but was millimetres away from making contact.

Cazorla had another opportunity to level matters in the 69th minute but Aranzubia managed to tip his free-kick over the bar.

Moments later Villarreal goalkeeper Lopez, who had been a spectator for most of the match, produced a stunning save to tip Sergio's fierce strike round the post.

And Lopez kept his side in the game again four minutes from time as he denied Riki who had raced through one-on-one with the goalkeeper.