Villarreal have seen their hopes of Champions League qualification suffer a blow with a goalless draw at struggling Almeria in La Liga.

The visitors created the first proper chance in front of goal on 18 minutes when Giovani dos Santos flashed a free kick inches wide, while Thievy Bifouma was denied at the other end soon after by a point-blank save from Sergio Asenjo.

Giovani was in the thick of the action again midway through the half, but this time his effort was deflected off target.

An ill-tempered first half spilled over with five minutes left to play as Almeria defender Mauro Dos Santos was shown a straight red card for hacking down Giovani when the forward was through on goal.

Both teams were down to 10 men at the start of the second period as Jaume Costa picked up his second yellow card of the afternoon for a reckless challenge on Wellington Silva.

With the two sides struggling for supremacy, Almeria wasted a golden opportunity to take the lead on the hour through Tomer Hemed, who somehow fired over from five yards out after seeing his initial strike saved by Asenjo.

Villarreal looked the more likely to find the net during the scrappy final stages, only for Tomas Pina to shoot wide from close range before directing a header straight at goalkeeper Julian Cuesta.