Madrid - Valencia moved up to fifth in La Liga on Sunday with a tight 1-0 win away to Racing Santamnder, on a late goal from supersub Zigic. The towering Serbian had only been on the field for five minutes, after league top scorer David Villa had limped off with a torn muscle in his right thigh.
Villa will almost certainly miss Spain's final World Cup qualifying games against Armenia and Bosnia.
In the 61st minute Santander veteran Pablo Pinillos played a terrible back-pass for goalkeeper Tono and Zigic powered in to score.
Santander pushed hard for a draw at the end but the Valencia defence - which has already leaked 12 goals this season - this time stood firm.
"It was an important win for us," said Valencia captain Carlos Marchena, "because our recent results have not been very good."
Marchena and company are now fifth with 11 points from six games. They are one point behind Sevilla and Deportivo Coruna, who share third place, and one above Mallorca and Athletic Bilbao.
Earlier on Sunday Mallorca were thrashed 4-1 by Sporting Gijon, for whom Miguel de las Cuevas scored two goals.
Bilbao, for their part, battled out a 2-2 draw in Valladolid, thanks to a late equalizer from Iker Munain.
One point behind Bilbao and Mallorca are Getafe, who beat Osasuna 2-1 on a late goal from Pedro Leon.
Villarreal coach Ernesto Valverde, meanwhile, is in massive danger after his troubled team were held to a 0-0 home draw by Espanyol, who played with 10 men for most of the game.
Villarreal - who reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League last season - are now second from bottom of La Liga without a win to their name, with just three points from six games.
"We really should have won today," said Villarreal striker Guiseppe Rossi, "but we didn't take our chances."
In the 15th minute Espanyol defender Juan Forlin was sent off for pulling down Rossi. However, the out-of-form Villarreal defence failed to break down the weakened Espanyol defence.
Valverde - who, ironically, enjoyed his best coaching days at Espanyol - is likely to become the first Liga coach sacked this season.
Sunday's other early game was a tense 1-1 draw between bottom team Xerez and Malaga, who are third from bottom.
Sunday's late game will be the clash of the weekend, between third-placed Sevilla and second-placed Real Madrid.
Real need to win in Sevilla, no easy feat, in order to keep up with leaders Barcelona, who scraped a 1-0 home win on Saturday over Almeria.
Real go into the big game without injury victims Cristiano Ronaldo, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Lassana Diarra and Alvaro Arbeloa.
