In-form Espanyol boosted their survival hopes and at the same time put a huge dent in Valencia’s Champions League hopes with a convincing 3-0 victory on Sunday.
Second-half goals from Roman Martinez, Nicolas Pareja and Nene made it 16 points from 18 for Espanyol, who climb four points above the relegation zone.
For Valencia it was a major setback as they missed a golden opportunity to pull away from Villarreal, a point behind in fifth, who lost 2-0 to Sevilla on Saturday.
A few weeks ago, Espanyol looked destined for the second division, but Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino has found the magic formula at the right time with five wins and a draw in the last six matches.
Atletico Madrid capitalized on Valencia’s slip with a 2-0 win over Real Betis to move a point behind their rivals.
Uruguayan international Diego Forlan scored both goals to take his season’s tally to 25, just two behind the league’s top-scorer Samuel Eto’o.
Deportivo La Coruna are still in with an outside shot of Champions League soccer after they defeated Valladolid 1-0 on Sunday to move three points behind Valencia.
New Getafe coach Michel tasted defeat in his first match in charge, losing 2-1 to Real Mallorca to leave the club staring relegation in the face.
A disastrous mistake from Serbian goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic, on loan from Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon, gifted Mallorca the winning goal on 68 minutes, with Aritz Aduriz pouncing on his slack goal-kick to slot home.
“At 1-1, we were on top and wanted to win it, but then this incident [the mistake by Stojkovic] cost us the match,” Michel said.
Last season Getafe were jostling with Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup and lost to Valencia in the Copa del Rey final, but they currently lie fourth from bottom.
Getafe sacked Victor Munoz last week after three successive defeats, but a new coach did not bring a change of fortune. Michel won six league titles as a player with Real Madrid and is not used to fighting relegation and has little time to adapt with just four games left to save the club from the drop.
Recreativo Huelva scored a crucial late winner to down relegation rivals Osasuna 2-1 and are now just a point from safety.
Defender Nasief Morris scored a brilliant volleyed winner in the dying seconds of the match to boost Recre’s chances of staying up. Osasuna stay two points above the bottom three after the defeat.
Sporting Gijon were frustrated by a late equalizer in a 1-1 draw with Athletic Bilbao. Incredibly it was Sporting’s first draw of the season and they are now level on points with Getafe, who occupy the final safety spot.
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