Valencia recover from cup defeat, Zaragoza win at last

Feb 12, 2012, 19:09 GMT

Madrid - Valencia recovered from Wednesday's cup defeat at Barcelona in fine style on Sunday, slaughtering lowly Sporting Gijon 4-0 at home.

Sofiane Feghouli gave the hosts the lead in the 33rd minute, Gijon defender Alberto Botia made it 2-0 with a clumsy own goal. Brazilian striker Jonas completed the rout with two handsome late goals.

The comfortable win leaves Valencia in third place with 40 points, eight less than second-placed Barcelona, who on Saturday surprisingly crashed 3-2 at osasuna.

Barca are seven points behind runaway leaders Real madrid, who will increase their lead to 10 points if they manage to beat Levante at home later on Sunday.

Levante are fourth, eight points behind neighbours Valencia.

Also on Sunday, Malaga moved up to seventh by beating Mallorca 3-1, on goals from Seba Fernandez, Jeremy Toulalan and Jose Rondon.

Rayo Vallecano, meanwhile, beat Getafe 2-0 in a lively southern Madrid derby, thanks to goals from Michu and Diego Costa. Getafe were crippled by the sending-off of midfielder Michel.

Sunday's lunchtime game saw bottom team Zaragoza score their first win in almost four months, 2-0 at fifth-placed Espanyol, with goals from Paulo da Silva and Juan Carlos.

Zaragoza are still practically doomed because they are four points behind Gijon and nine behind Racing Santander, the third-from-bottom team.