Striker Miguel Angel ”Mista” Ferrer scored twice on Wednesday to earn Valencia a 3-0 victory over a nine-man Espanyol and lift the defending champions into second place in the Spanish league.
Spain midfielder Ruben Baraja opened the scoring to help Valencia extend their unbeaten run to seven matches and inflict the heaviest defeat of the season on Espanyol, which had Raul Tamudo and Oscar Serrano ejected just before half-time.
In another 17th-round game, Sevilla’s Brazilian forward Julio Baptista scored in the 19th minute to beat Real Madrid 1-0 and win their first game at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in 20 years.
Madrid’s fifth defeat of the season, which dropped it to fifth place, was watched by Italian Arrigo Sacchi, who was named as the club’s director of soccer on Monday.
Wednesday’s other results were: Deportivo La Coruna 2, Zaragoza 3; Albacete 2, Villarreal 2; Malaga 1, Real Sociedad 5; Getafe 2, Racing Santander 0; Athletic Bilbao 4, Mallorca 0; and Osasuna 2, Numancia 0.
Barcelona, who beat Levante 2-1 on Tuesday, head the standings with 42 points. Valencia have 32, one point ahead of Sevilla. Espanyol fell to fourth with 30, one more than Madrid.
Real Betis, who edged Atletico Madrid 1-0 on Tuesday, are sixth with 27.
Madrid have played one less game because their December 12 encounter with Real Sociedad was abandoned due to a bomb scare, and will be resumed on January 5.
Baraja put Valencia ahead with a free kick in the 12th minute and Espanyol’s hopes were dashed when Tamudo and Serrano were ejected for dissent.
Mista added a second in the 81st when he slid home a cross from the right by substitute Francisco Perez Rufete, and added a similar goal five minutes later on a pass by another substitute, Italian forward Bernardo Corradi.
Madrid finished the year by slipping 13 points behind rival Barcelona.
Coach Mariano Garcia Remon selected Michael Owen to start and left Ronaldo on the bench despite recovering from the injury that kept him out of Saturday’s win over Santander. Left back Roberto Carlos was unavailable because of injury.
Sevilla capitalised on their counterattacking style to score the game’s only goal when Baptista raced on to a header and chipped over advancing goalkeeper Iker Casillas in the 19th minute.
The Brazilian, who scored 20 goals for Sevilla last season, has eight goals this year.
Ronaldo replaced David Beckham at half-time, but Madrid rarely threatened, while Sevilla continued to trouble Casillas regularly, sparking some Madrid supporters to jeer the team as it left the field.
Midfielder Ruben ”Cani” Garcia, Argentine defender Gabriel Milito and striker David Villa scored to earn Zaragoza their first victory in eight games and stretch Deportivo’s winless run to five.
Deportivo, who had Argentine midfielder Lionel Scaloni ejected with four minutes remaining for a reckless tackle, led early in the second half on goals by Pablo Amo and forward Albert Luque two minutes apart.
Albacete’s Uruguayan striker Antonio Pacheco and Villarreal’s Antonio ”Guayre” Betancor each scored twice in the teams’ 2-2 draw.
Villarreal’s Argentina defender Rodolfo Arruabarrena was ejected in the 75th minute.
Serbia-Montenegro striker Darko Kovacevic and Turkey striker Nihat Kahveci scored two goals apiece with defender Mikel Labaka adding the other to lead Real Sociedad and extend Malaga’s unbeaten run to five..
Defender Vicente Valcarce scored for Malaga, who remained in 18th place with 15 points.
Striker Riki Sanchez grabbed two goals in the first 32 minutes to give Getafe their win over Racing Santander, their first victory in six matches.
Athletic Bilbao used two goals from Fran Yeste, his second on a penalty, to win their third straight game. Santi Ezquerro and Carlos Gurpegi also scored for Bilbao. Mallorca defender Poli Fernandez was sent off just before the final whistle.
Osasuna’s Uruguayan striker Richard Morales scored two second-half goals to beat Numancia, who have lost all nine of their games on the road this season. — Sapa-AP