Villarreal move above Spanish danger zone

Feb 12, 2012, 20:52 GMT

Madrid - Villarreal moved above the danger zone in the Spanish Liga on Sunday with a 3-1 defeat of lowly Granada.

Villarreal's goals were scored by Marco Ruben and Borja Valero, plus an own goal from over-worked Granada keeper Julio Cesar.

The win takes the yellows up to seventh from bottom. Granada, who had defender Pape Diakhate sent off, are now fifth from bottom.

Earlier on Sunday, Valencia recovered from Wednesday's cup defeat at Barcelona by slaughtering lowly Sporting Gijon 4-0 at home.

'We needed to play well and score goals,' said Valencia's left-back Jordi Alba, 'because our recent results and performances have been poor.'

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 fewer 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 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.