Zaragoza 1 : 0 Levante - Oriol strike enough for Zaragoza

Edu Oriol's early goal was enough to give Real Zaragoza a vital 1-0 win that boosted their Primera Division survival hopes and dented Levante's Champions League aspirations at La Romareda.

Oriol's 11th-minute strike from the edge of the area gave Zaragoza the spoils and moved them to within three points of 17th-placed Rayo Vallecano with two games remaining, although they are at a disadvantage in terms of their head-to-head record.

A win would have moved Levante into fourth place ahead of Malaga, who were beaten by Barcelona, but they instead remain three points adrift.

With so much resting on the game for both sides it was an understandably tense opening.

But Oriol delighted the home fans by opening the scoring with the first genuine attack of the contest.

The winger coolly slotted low into Gustavo Munua's bottom left-hand corner from 18 yards to stun the visitors.

Levante sought a response as Pedro Botelho and Valmiro Valdo were off target from distance, and they came close to an equaliser in the 27th minute as Roberto Jimenez made a stunning save to keep out Abdelkader Ghezzal's header.

Angel Lafita could have doubled the home side's advantage nine minutes later but he wastefully dragged his effort across goal.

Striker Helder Postiga went even closer to grabbing Zaragoza's second five minutes after the break as Munua acted brilliantly to keep out his close-range effort, as well as tipping away Luis Garcia's shot from distance.

But as time ran down it was Levante who looked the more likely to find a goal, but Gustavo Cabral wasted their best chance as he headed over from 10 yards.