Villarreal, Valencia win to stay with Barcelona

Valencia is alone in third place with 27 points after Ruben Baraja scored the winner with a 73rd-minute header as Valencia blew a two-goal and overcame the 63rd-minute ejection of Carlos Marchena yesterday.

Barcelona beat Sevilla 3-0 on Saturday to improve to 32 points – six better than Madrid, which lost several more of its international players to injury in a 3-1 loss at Getafe.

Diego Forlan scored two goals and set up the other two as Atletico Madrid rallied for a 4-1 victory against 10-man Racing Santander to stay sixth.

Also yesterday, it was: Almeria 0, Deportivo La Coruna 1; Valladolid 3, Mallorca 0; Malaga 4, Osasuna 2; Athletic Bilbao 2, Numancia 0; and Espanyol 0, Sporting Gijon 1.

Villarreal came into the match with several injuries, and striker Jozy Altidore used a rare start to trouble the Recreativo goal early.

Cazorla scored his fourth goal of the season in the 27th minute after his long shot deflected through the area and left goalkeeper Asier Riesgo without a chance. Ibagaza swung his free kick from outside the area inside near post in the 45th as Villarreal rebounded from its first league defeat since April.

Ronaldinho scored a consolation from the spot seven minutes from time after he was brought down by Cesare Bovo. At the San Siro, Inter coach Jose Mourinho blasted the club’s fans for jeering Brazilian full-back Maicon.

“We need the support of our fans. I don’t like it when a section of our fans in a match such as this start whistling a player for a misplaced pass,” he moaned.

“Maicon played despite an injury and despite both myself and the medical staff advising him not to. He said: ‘there’s no-one who can stop me playing’.”

Looking at Inter’s lead at the top, Mourinho said he wanted a bigger gap.

“We need to earn as many points as possible ahead of the Christmas break and then see what the distance is to Juventus, Milan and Roma,” he added.

On paper, Napoli looked to be a tough test for Inter but the champions seemed to be strolling away with the game midway through the first period as they opened up a 2-0 lead.

Napoli gifted their hosts a 16th-minute advantage with poor defending at a short corner which was played to Sulley Muntari who crossed for Colombian centre-back Ivan Cordoba to volley home on the turn.

Inter’s second was pure class, though, as Julio Cruz’s backheel presented Maicon with space to shoot inside the box.

He scuffed his effort but it arrived at Muntari’s feet on the edge of the six-yard box and the Ghana midfielder reacted quickly to flick the ball between his legs and past the helpless Gennaro Iezzo on 25 minutes.

Deportivo joined Atletico on 21 points after Joan Verdu collected his own rebound in the 75th to score after missing from the penalty spot eight minutes earlier.

Almeria played with 10 from the 52nd after Alvaro Negredo was red-carded for an errant elbow.

Jose Garcia Calvo scored in the 29th before second-half goals from Angel Vivar Dorado and Henok Goitom ensured Valladolid won its third straight to move into eighth.

Mallorca, which is winless in six, saw defender David Navarro taken to hospital with a head injury.

Malaga blew a two-goal lead before rallying behind late goals from former Spain international Albert Luque and Eliseu Pereira dos Santos at La Rosaleda.

Antonio “Apono” Galdeano’s 56th-minute penalty sparked Malaga, with Nabil Baha heading in Adrian Lopez’s cross at the far post in the 62nd.

Javad Nekounam scored in the 79th and Miguel Flano scored a minute later to even it before Luque scored from a solo run in the 84th. Eliseu added the fourth in injury time as Osasuna stayed second from the bottom.

Bartolome Marquez may have coached his last game with Espanyol after Carmelo Gonzalez’s goal caused the 17th-place Barcelona club to lose its fourth straight. Espanyol also lost leading striker Raul Tamudo to injury.

At the San Mames, Fernando Llorente continued to display the impressive form that earned the 23-year-old striker a Spain call-up earlier this month by scoring two goals within 31 minutes as Numancia replaced Athletic in the relegation zone.