| After dumping Barcelona out of the Spanish Cup earlier last week, Valencia did the Catalan giants a massive favour last night by beating leaders Real Madrid 2-3 at the Santiago Bernabeu, cutting the champions' lead to four points after Barcelona's earlier 4-1 success against Real Valladolid at the Nou Camp.
Spain striker David Villa opened the scoring for Valencia in the 33rd minute though Raúl levelled the scores with a close-range header almost immediately after the re-start.
The former Spain skipper lent further weight to the campaign for his restoration to the national side ten minutes after the interval with a second headed goal which put the home side in front for the only time in the game.
David Villa notched his second from the penalty spot in the 67th minute after Fabbio Cannavaro had brought down David Silva, to level the scores before Angel Arizmendi left the Italy skipper standing before rounding Casillas to clinch the points and silence the disappointed home crowd (photo).
At the Nou Camp, Bojan Krkic (17), who does seem set to be included in Luis Aragonés's squad for this summer's Euro 2008 finals, scored twice for Barcelona after first Samuel Eto'o then Andres Iniesta had given Barcelona the lead either side of a 30th minute penalty converted for the visitors by Jonathan Sesma.
Sunday, 23rd March Levante 1-2 Villarreal Real Zaragoza 1-1 Almeria Barcelona 4-1 Valladolid Racing Santander 2-0 Recreativo Huelva Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Getafe Real Madrid 2-3 Valencia Murcia 4-0 Espanyol Osasuna 0-1 Real Betis
Saturday, 22nd March Mallorca 1-0 Deportivo La Coruna Sevilla 1-2 Atletico Madrid
Liga table after 29 games 1 Real Madrid 62 2 Barcelona 58 3 Villarreal 56 4 Atletico Madrid 50 5 Racing Santander 47 6 Sevilla 45 7 Espanyol 45 8 Athletic Bilbao 39 9 Getafe 39 10 Almeria 39 11 Valencia 39 12 Real Mallorca 37 13 Real Betis 35 14 Osasuna 34 15 Deportivo La Coruna 34 16 Real Zaragoza 33 17 Real Valladolid 32 18 Recreativo Huelva 32 19 Murcia 26 20 Levante 19
Saturday, 29th March Real Betis vs Barcelona Villarreal vs Atletico Madrid
Sunday, 30th March Almeria vs Levante Espanyol vs Racing Santander Getafe vs Osasuna Recreativo Huelva vs Athletic Bilbao Valencia vs Mallorca Valladolid vs Real Zaragoza Deportivo La Coruna vs Murcia Real Madrid vs Sevilla |