Villarreal stretched their unbeaten run to 13 matches but were unable to put any more daylight between themselves and rival European hopefuls Malaga as the two teams shared a 1-1 draw on Saturday evening.
Jonathan Dos Santos' thunderous volley on the stroke of half-time put Villarreal ahead at La Rosaleda but Malaga fought back and Nordin Amrabat's equaliser on the hour mark levelled things up.
The result keeps sixth-placed Villarreal one point and one place ahead of Malaga in the table, but both clubs have now played two more games than Sevilla in fifth and could end up looking back on Saturday's match as a missed opportunity.
Neither side seemed willing to risk too much in search of the three points, though, and the draw was a fair result.
In-form Villarreal came into the game having not suffered a competitive defeat since going down to FC Zurich in the Europa League at the start of November, but that run looked under threat as Malaga started the better of the two.
They went close to an opener in the 12th minute when Amrabat saw his 25-yard effort tipped around the post by Sergio Asenjo, who then produced another good save to turn behind Vitorino Antunes' shot 10 minutes later.
Villarreal, meanwhile, had to wait until after the half-hour mark to seriously test Carlos Kameni, but the Cameroon international showed he had stayed alert by producing a brilliant save to deny Ikechukwu Uche.
Kameni was beaten in the final action of the first half, though, as Jonathan smashed a superb right-footed shot home from a tight angle after a deep cross had been headed up into the air.
That was tough on Malaga, but Villarreal's lead lasted only 15 minutes into the second half.
The home side had already seen an effort ruled out for an apparent offside but they drew level soon after with a goal that was the epitome of route one football.
Villarreal goalkeeper Asenjo's punt into Malaga's half was launched straight back over the visiting defence by Antunes and Amrabat ran onto it before lofting a shot past Asenjo from the edge of the box.
The two sides appeared happy to settle for a point apiece after that equaliser, with chances few and far between in the final half-hour.