Madrid - Valencia moved up to fifth in the Spanish Liga on Sunday with a 4-1 thrashing of lowly Getafe. Euro 2008 top scorer David Villa put Valencia on the road to victory by calmly putting away two penalties. Fellow Spanish internationals Juan Mata and Raul Albiol scored Valencia's other goals.
"It was important for us to win tonight," said Albiol, "in order to keep our Champions League chances alive."
Albiol and company are now just two points behind fourth-placed Villarreal, who crashed 3-0 away to Almeria on Saturday.
Valencia are now three points above Atletico Madrid, Deportivo Coruna and Malaga.
Earlier on Sunday, the long-suffering fans of Atletico Madrid had to endure another nightmare, when their troubled team crashed 4-2 at home to lowly Osasuna, for whom veteran Walter Pandiani was the two-goal hero.
The ageless Uruguayan striker headed Osasuna ahead after just eight minutes. Fellow Uruguayan Diego Forlan quickly made it 1-1, but Kristzian Vadocz restored Osasuna's lead just before half-time.
Pandiani made it 3-1 for Osasuna just after the restart and Masoud Soleimani took advantage of a weary Atletico defence to add a fourth.
Pablo Ibanez pulled a late goal back for Atletico, but it came to late to save them from a depressing defeat.
"We can't afford to throw points away like that," moaned Pablo. "We were really slack in defence this evening."
Atletico are now in joint fifth place with Malaga and Deportivo Coruna.
Malaga lost 1-0 at home on Saturday against second-placed Real Madrid, who are six points behind leaders Barcelona.
In Sunday's other early game, in addition to the Atletico-Osasuna clash, Deportivo lost 3-1 away to bottom side Espanyol.
Espanyol are still bottom, though now with 25 points, two less than Numancia, five less thanm Recreativo Huelva and six less than Getafe.
Osasuna, coached by former Spain manager Jose Antonio Camacho, move up to seventh from bottom thanks to their memorable defeat of Atletico.
Sunday's late game is the north coast derby between Sporting Gijon and Racing Santander.
