Valencia stay focused

Valencia triumphed 4-2 over Villarreal on Sunday to keep up the pressure on league leaders Real Madrid.

The 2001-02 league winners notched up their fifth consecutive victory to stay just two points adrift of the reigning Spanish champions who beat Murcia 1-0 on Saturday to maintain their perfect home record this season.

Real have 42 points from 18 games with Valencia on 40 points.

Villarreal started promisingly with Juan Roman Riquelme scoring direct from a free kick after 15 minutes.

However, Valencia always pressed and got their just reward 11 minutes after the break when Spanish international midfielder Ruben Baraja proved he could also find the net with a dead ball.

Less than a minute elapsed before Argentine playmaker Pablo Aimar put Valencia ahead with a typically inspired individual effort.

Baraja got his second after 72 minutes but Villarreal never gave up and their Brazilain defender Belletti pulled one back five minutes later.

In the frenzy that accompanied the final few minutes, Mista Ferrer scrambled the ball home, his tenth goal of the season, to finally secure all three points for Valencia.

Osasuna edged into fourth place after a 1-1 draw at Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

The visitors took the lead after 35 minutes through Jose Izquierdo when the 23-year-old right back found

himself in the right place at the right time to get the first goal of his six year professional career.

However, Asier del Horno tapped in an equaliser for the Basque hosts on the stroke of half-time, after his teammate Luis Prieto had hit the post from a corner.

At the other end of the table, the New Year wish of Espanyol coach Luis Fernandez was that his team got a fairer deal from the fates and it was quickly granted as the bottom club won 2-0 at home to Real Mallorca.

"This match showed that we are not relegated yet," said Fernandez, before paying tribute to his Spanish international Raul Tamudo for two outstanding goals.

"Tamudo was inspired, but others such as Jordi Cruyff contributed almost as much."

Tamudo opened the scoring after just 24 seconds, latching onto a long ball from Cruyff, and then added to his tally after 74 minutes with a rasping long-range effort for Espanyol's first win after five successive losses.

It was also only the second time in their sorry season that the Barcelona-based club had scored two goals in a game and Espanyol left the field to cheers rather than jeers ringing in their ears

Any ambitions that Mallorca had of staging a late comeback were snuffed out when their Cameroon international Samuel Eto'o was sent off 11 minutes from time.

Despite the victory, Espanyol stay bottom of the first division and still face a huge battle to avoid going down after 10 seasons in the top flight of Spanish football.

By contrast, Espanyol's illustrious neighbours Barcelona have been ever-present in the Spanish first division but are facing the prospect of finishing in the lower half of the table for the first time since 1942.

The Catalan giants crashed 3-0 at Racing Santander on Sunday to slip to 12th.

Ronaldinho squandered two good chances of putting Barca ahead in the first half and then Racing got going after the break.

Juanma Delgado scored Racing's first goal after 52 minutes, helped by an error from Barca goalkeeper Rustu Recber.

Mario Regueiro and Javi Guerrero got goals in the last 10 minutes to add to Barcelona's embarrassment.

Real Sociedad enhanced their own chances of survival 2-1 away win at Malaga to edge out of the relegation zone.

Malaga opened the scoring after 25 minutes when their Portuguese defender Litos headed home a cross from his compatriot Duda.

Valery Karpin equalised eight minutes before the break for Sociedad, finding the net with a low shot from a Nihat Kahveci pass.

Nihat then got on the scoresheet himself, the Turkish international scoring the winner direct from a free kick two minutes into injury time at the end of the first half.