Villarreal bests Recreativo Huelva

Nov 30, 2008 - 10:46 PM By PA SportsTicker

Villarreal climbed back up to second in the Primera Liga and closed the gap on leaders Barcelona to four points with a 2-1 win at Recreativo Huelva on Sunday.

Manuel Pellegrini's side took advantage of Real Madrid's loss at Getafe on Saturday to move up a place thanks to first-half goals from Santi Cazorla and Ariel Ibagaza.

Adrian Colunga halved the deficit late on, but the 'Yellow Submarine' never looked in danger of throwing away the lead against the division's bottom side.

Valencia is a point behind Villarreal in third after it survived a second-half fightback from Real Betis and the sending off of Carlos Marchena to claim a 3-2 win.

Unai Emery's side raced into a 2-0 lead in the first 20 minutes through David Villa and Juan Manuel Mata.

But Juanma pulled a goal back for Betis 11 minutes after the break and Achille Emana equalized from the penalty spot, Marchena seeing red for his foul which led to the spot-kick.

Ruben Baraja, though, headed the winner for the 10 men.

Atletico Madrid came from behind to beat 10-man Racing Santander, 4-1, and closed the gap on fifth-placed Sevilla to three points.

Mohammed Tchite put the visitors ahead with a penalty, but Atletico came roaring back thanks to goals from Simao Sabrosa and Sergio Aguero in the first half and a quickfire Diego Forlan brace after the break.

Racing had Cesar Navas sent-off with the score at 1-1.

Elsewhere, Joan Verdu made up for an earlier penalty miss to earn Deportivo La Coruna a 1-0 win over 10-man Almeria, who had Alvaro Negredo sent-off six minutes into the second half.

Real Valladolid picked up its third successive win with a 3-0 victory over Real Mallorca at the Estadio Nuevo Jose Zorrilla.

Jose Antonio Garcia Calvo, Angel Manuel Vivar Dorado and Henok Goitom were all on target, but Mallorca's main concern will be the serious-looking head injury suffered by David Navarro, who clashed with team-mate Josemi and had to be replaced.

Malaga did things the hard way as it posted a 4-2 win over Osasuna following a thrilling conclusion at La Rosaleda.

Goals from Antonio Apono and Nabil Baha at the start of the second half put Antonio Tapia's side 2-0 up, but Javad Nekounam and Miguel Flano both struck in the space of 60 seconds with 10 minutes to go to level the scores.

That comeback yielded no reward, though, as Albert Luque put Malaga back in front before Pereira Eliseu sealed the win.

Fernando Llorente struck twice in the first half to secure Athletic Bilbao a 2-0 win over Numancia.

Bilbao had Xabier Etxeita dismissed in stoppage-time, but this win against its relegation rivals lifted them out of the bottom three.

Espanyol crashed to a fourth straight league defeat, 1-0, at home to Sporting Gijon.

Carmelo Gonzalez's excellent first-half strike left the hosts just a point above the bottom three.

Getafe delivered a blow to Real Madrid's title ambitions and coach Bernd Schuster's hopes of keeping hold of his job with a 3-1 victory.

Juan Albin struck at the start of each half before Javier Saviola pulled one back, but Ike Uche grabbed Getafe's third.

Sunday's results saw Madrid drop to fourth, six points off top spot.