Villa inspires Valencia

Oct 19, 2008 - 9:18 PM Valencia opened up a two-point gap at the top of the Primera Liga following a 4-0 victory over struggling Numancia at the Mestalla on Sunday.

An early goal from David Villa put the hosts firmly in control and, though the Soria-based outfit held back the floodgates for more than an hour, late strikes from Juan Mata, Vicente and a second for Villa applied the gloss to an easy afternoon's work for Unai Emery's men.

Sevilla moved into second, above Villarreal on goal difference, after a hard-fought 1-0 win at Almeria.

Adriano scored the only goal, firing home from the edge of the box seven minutes into the second half.

Barcelona remained within three points of Valencia following a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao.

Samuel Eto'o struck the only goal of the game midway through the second half after a fine run by Thierry Henry.

Getafe slipped to their first away defeat of the season as resurgent Malaga came from behind to take all three points at La Rosaleda.

The visitors looked well set for their third road victory of the campaign when Roberto Soldado put them ahead after 10 minutes.

But the home side, who have now won three games on the spin after a slow start, roared back and won it with first-half goals from Nabil Baha and Sergio Duda.

Racing Santander and Deportivo La Coruna drew 0-0 while Jose Antonio Camacho could not inspire his new charges as 10-man Osasuna slipped to another defeat at Sporting Gijon.

Sporting took an early lead through Gonzalez Carmelo, but were pegged back courtesy of Santiago Ezquerro's leveller just three minutes later.

Mate Bilic restored Sporting's lead from the penalty spot after being impeded in the box by Roversio, who was sent off for the foul.

The defeat left Osasuna without a Primera Liga win this season, while Sporting, after back-to-back wins, leapfrogged their opponents out of the relegation zone.

New Recreativo Huelva coach Lucas Alcaraz came within seconds of winning his first game in charge but a dream start was denied by a last-minute equalizer at Real Valladolid.

Alcaraz, who replaced the sacked Manolo Zambrano just before the international break, would have been forgiven for thinking Marco Ruben's stunning volley on the stroke of half-time was enough for a crucial win, but fellow strugglers Valladolid had other ideas and snatched a point thanks to Fernandez Victor in the second minute of injury time.

Recre remained in the bottom three.

Real Betis moved off the bottom with a 3-0 win at home to Real Mallorca.

Damia gave the hosts the lead in the first minute, striker Mariano Pavone added a second shortly before half-time and Achille Emana struck a third late on to wrap up a much-needed win for Betis.

Saturday's action was dominated by the Madrid derby which was won 2-1 by Real.

Real, who have not lost a league game at the Vicente Calderon since the 1998-99 season, took a first-minute lead through Ruud van Nistelrooy but Simao Sabrosa's 89th-minute free-kick looked to have saved Atletico.

However, Gonzalo Higuain showed nerves of steel deep into injury-time to slot home the winner from the spot after John Heitinga had brought down fellow Dutchman Royston Drenthe in the box.

Both teams played more than half the match with only 10 players after Luis Perea and Van Nistelrooy were shown straight red cards in separate first-half incidents.

In Saturday other La Liga match, Espanyol's Raul Tamudo saw a second half penalty saved by Villarreal goalkeeper Diego Lopez in a match which finished goalless.