Espanyol and Villarreal have played out an exciting 1-1 draw in Sunday afternoon's La Liga clash at the Estadi Cornella-El Prat.

The opening stages of the game were marred with tackles and fouls that stopped the action from flowing, the first effort not coming until the 21st minute when Victor Alvarez headed wide for the hosts.

Villarreal eventually broke the deadlock just five minutes later when Denis Cheryshev's headed flick-on fell to Mario in front of the goalmouth, the defender having little to do but smash the ball over the line.

Espanyol picked themselves up in the second half and had the Yellow Submarines under siege in the early stages, with a multitude of players taking potshots at the visitors' goal.

With the pendulum swinging both ways and both sides playing exciting open-ended football, it was only a matter of time before a second goal would come.

Indeed, Espanyol left it until the very end to come up with a reply, with Diego Colotto poking home from within the box.

The result means that Espanyol are 11th in the table, while Villarreal are in eighth place.