A last gasp goal in a five-goal thriller in Gijon, Northern Spain, sent a side who three weeks ago looked deadmen walking - soaring back into fourth place and Champions league contention. A win which could prove to be debt ridden Valencia's salvation.
A magnificent run and finish from Silva put Valencia ahead early on against Sporting, but then a penalty kick from Barral levelled matters soon after. Eventual match winner Mata then won his side a penalty which David Villa tucked away to put Valencia ahead again in the 56th minute, only for Bilic to head Sporting level again just a quarter of an hour later. Time was ticking away and Valencia's big chance looked to be lost but with two minutes remaining Silva found Mata in the box to smash home an absolutely crucial winner.
Part of the reason Valencia were able to cling back onto that Champions League lifeline lies with the recent poor performances of their main rivals, Villareal and Atlético Madrid. Villareal continued their poor league form on Saturday by losing 2-0 at home to Malaga and once again losing a key player to injury.
Having only recently lost Sami Cazorla, Villareal are now also without Marcos Senna for their midweek clash with Arsenal, after the Spanish international had to be withdrawn after 80 minutes. Worst still, their three substitutions had already been made in a game they were trailing 1-0.
Duda had scored the first for Malaga just before halftime after he latched onto Apoño's flighted ball to neatly finish, and Villareal were left to chase the game with just 10 men and 10 minutes remaining. It was the exceptional winger Eliseu who made them pay, tucking away Malaga's second 5 minutes from time.
Apart from Senna's injury Arsene Wenger may also have taken note that both goals conceded by Villareal were the result of long balls, not normally Arsenal's forte' but certainly something they can employ effectively.
Meanwhile, Xavi and Et'o had hardly had time to settle into their places on the substitute's bench at the Nou Camp before they were leaping out of them again - not to join the fray but to celebrate Iniesta's goal after less than a minute.
A devastating burst of pace from Henry on the left opened up an incision in the Recreativo defence. His slide pass ball from the byline then bobbled through a tangle of legs to fall to Iniesta to tap away.
Valdes was then called into action on a few occasions and Recreativo had a penalty shout, but overall Barcelona deserved to win this one, which they made sure of with their second, mid-way through the second half. The move started with Iniesta swooping left and right on a darting run into the box and hitting a low ball across goal that took a wicked deflection off defender Morris to settle in the back of the net.
But Real Madrid just won’t be thrown off the leaders’ tail as Juande Ramos's side racked up another 3 points at home to Vallodolid. The performance was again pretty unremarkable. Ramos's record, however, is quite another matter, with the former Tottenham and Sevilla boss taking 43 of a possible 48 points to date.
Two men with points to prove helped wrap this one up for Real. Firstly Higauin - a man desperate to catch the eye of Argentina coach Diego Maradona, having failed to earn a call up to an Argentina side since snubbing the under 21s a few years back - ghosted between his two markers and into the box to put the ball on the plate for Raúl to finish just before the halftime whistle.
Then Guti - who last week stirred up yet more controversy by refusing Juande Ramos's order to go on as a subsitute - took the sting out of Vallodolid with a pin-point long range pass delivered to the feet of Arjen Robben, who controlled perfectly to fire in Real's second. All this while Vallodolid were still appealing for a penalty for an incident seconds earlier where Pepe appeared to have trod on the standing foot of Henok Goitom as he swung at the ball.
Atletico Madrid's 2-1 away win puts an end to their dismal run and takes them back up to 6th place. Kun Agüero played a beautiful one-two with strike partner Diego Forlan to burst into the box and finish, then Simao scored Atlético's second before Bodipo pulled one back late on for Deportivo La Coruña.
Much like the Premiership, things are really heating up at the foot of the table with just 8 games to go and 8 points seperating 19th and 10th place. The bottom two, Español and Numancia, did themselves no favours by sharing a scoreless draw whereas Mallorca, Getafe, Betis and Osasuna all managed wins that gave them some much needed breathing space.
Getafe pulled off a 'rope a dope' style suprise victory over 3rd placed Sevilla, with a late goal from Galivan, completely against the run of play. In an apparent 50/50, the forward managed to skip over the lunging challenge of the Sevilla full back and proceeded into the box unmarked to put the ball past Palop from a tight angle to steal the win.
Osasuna also grabbed a late winner through striker Sergio in their 2-1 win in the 'Basque derby' fixture with Athletic club Bilbao.
Betis beat Racing Santander 3-2 away, with powerful Cameroonian striker Achille Emana making sure new boss José María Nogués got off to winning ways with a great performance that included two well taken goals and a run that drew a red card for Santander keeper Toño. Emana now has 9 goals and 7 assists for the season.
Mallorca made much easier work of their victory over Almeria with Cleber Santana sending this superb bicycle kick into the top corner in the 61st minute as only Brazilians can and Castro adding another right at the death.
| 1 | Barcelona | 75 |
| 2 | R. Madrid | 69 |
| 3 | Sevilla | 57 |
| 4 | Valencia | 49 |
| 5 | Villarreal | 48 |
| 6 | Atlético | 46 |
| 7 | Málaga | 46 |
| 8 | Deportivo | 43 |
| 9 | Valladolid | 39 |
| 10 | Racing | 36 |
| 11 | Osasuna | 35 |
| 12 | Mallorca | 35 |
| 13 | Betis | 34 |
| 14 | Getafe | 34 |
| 15 | Athletic | 34 |
| 16 | Almería | 34 |
| 17 | Sporting | 33 |
| 18 | Recreativo | 30 |
| 19 | Numancia | 28 |
| 20 | Espanyol | 26 |