Athletic Bilbao maintained the six-point gap to fifth-placed Villarreal in LaLiga after playing out a 0-0 draw at the Estadio de la Ceramica on Sunday.

Villarreal had to navigate the final stages with 10 men after Pape Gueye was sent off for a poor challenge on Maroan Sannadi. 

Ayoze Perez was presented with the first opportunity, as he fired a volley straight at Unai Simon after being found by Santi Comesana. 

Villarreal continued to enjoy the better of the chances in the contest. Tajon Buchanan was the next to test Simon, but his stinging effort was repelled by the Spanish number one. 

Thierno Barry should have put the hosts ahead in the 68th minute, but the forward was unable to turn Gerard Moreno's teasing cross into an empty net. 

Barry made no mistake for what he thought would be the opener soon after, but the goal was ruled out for handball in the build-up following a VAR review. 

Bilbao had rarely threatened but were handed a chance to snatch all three points late on when Villarreal substitute Gueye received his marching orders just 20 minutes after being introduced into the action. 

But Ernesto Valverde's team were unable to make their man advantage count, mustering just one effort on target in the closing stages, which Luiz Junior was able to comfortably gather. 

Data Debrief: Villarreal left to rue missed opportunities

Villarreal will look back on this contest as an opportunity missed to close the gap to the top four in LaLiga, having largely had the better of proceedings. 

They ended the contest with an expected goals (xG) total of 1.74 from their 12 shots to Bilbao's 0.73 from their 11 attempts. 

Villarreal have now drawn 17 of their 50 matches against Bilbao in LaLiga (W18 L15), with only Espanyol (20) and Real Madrid (17) having drawn more games against them in their history in the competition (16, also against Atletico Madrid).

Bilbao's Champions League push has been built on a sturdy defence, and they have now kept 10 clean sheets in the league this term. Only Atleti (13) and Basque rivals Real Sociedad (12) have kept more shutouts in the competition in 2024-25.