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Villa stars in Valencia’s 4-1 victory

— PHOTO: AFP

FLYING HIGH: David Villa scored a brace as Valencia beat Villarreal in La Liga on Sunday.

MADRID: David Villa netted twice to fire Valencia to a 4-1 win over 10-man Villarreal in La Liga on Sunday and lift Unai Emery’s side to within three points of second-placed Real Madrid.

Real slumped to a 1-0 defeat at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday to remain on 41 points after 18 matches, five behind undefeated champion Barcelona, which took full advantage of Real’s slip-up by thrashing Sevilla 4-0 at the Nou Camp.

Mallorca in fourth place

Real Mallorca leapfrogged Deportivo Coruna into fourth place with a 2-0 home win over the Galicians earlier on Sunday.

Atletico Madrid continued its recovery from a poor start to the campaign with a nervy 3-2 win over Sporting Gijon and Racing Santander’s 18-year-old midfielder Sergio Canales cemented his status as La Liga’s rising star when he netted the equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Real Valladolid.

Ever Banega laid the foundation for Valencia’s third straight league win when the Argentine midfielder swept the ball high into the net in the sixth minute at the Mestalla, his first goal for the club.

Villa doubled the lead from the spot in the 28th after he was hauled back by Kiko and the referee awarded a penalty and showed the Villarreal defender a straight red card.

A defensive howler from Joan Capdevila gifted a third to his Spain teammate David Silva on 56 minutes and Nilmar pulled one back for the visitor with 29 minutes left after a mix-up between defender Alexis Ruano and goalkeeper Cesar Sanchez.

Silva crossed for Villa to score his 14th of the season at the death, putting the Spanish striker back at the top of the La Liga scoring chart level with Barca forward Lionel Messi.

Ronaldinho on song

Ronaldinho plundered a hat-trick as AC Milan crushed 10-man Siena 4-0 on Sunday to close the gap on Serie A leader Inter Milan to just six points and with the Milan derby to come next week.

Milan also has a game in hand meaning it could potentially draw level with the four-in-a-row champion if it was to win next weekend’s crunch clash.

Playing the league’s basement sitters, Milan hardly needed a helping hand but it got exactly that as Siena goalkeeper Gianluca Curci was harshly sent off after 10 minutes. Ronaldinho despatched the resulting penalty and Marco Borriello scored on 28 minutes to put the game to bed before half-time before the Brazilian rounded off the scoring in the second period.

Milan coach Leonardo paid tribute to his Brazilian compatriot . “It’s normal when someone feels the love, he responds. He’s entertaining everyone, he’s a great player,” he said of Ronaldinho.

The results: La Liga: Malaga 1 (Baha 84) bt Getafe 0; Racing Santander 1 (Canales 59) drew with Valladolid 1 (Pinillos 19-og); Almeria 1 (Goitom 60) drew with Tenerife 1 (Juanlu 2); Real Zaragoza 0 drew with Xerez 0; Real Mallorca 2 (Suarez 46, Castro 52) bt Deportivo La Coruna 0; Atletico Madrid 3 (Forlan 13, Assuncao 53, Ibrahima 66) bt Sporting Gijon 2 (Castro 34-pen, Moran 90); Valencia 4 (Banega 6, Villa 28-pen, 90, Silva 56) bt Villarreal 1 (Nilmar 61).

On Saturday: Osasuna 2 (Juanfran 7, Pandiani 8) bt Espanyol 0; Athletic Bilbao 1 (Llorente 2) bt Real Madrid 0; Barcelona 4 (Escude 49-og, Pedro 70, Messi 85, 90) bt Sevilla 0.

Serie A: Napoli 0 drew with Palermo 0; AC Milan 4 (Ronaldinho 12-pen,72, 89, Marco Borriello 28) bt Siena 0; AS Roma 3 (Simone Perrotta 17, Luca Toni 45, 60) bt Genoa 0; Atalanta Bergamo 3 (Cristiano Doni 5, 9, Simone Padoin 35) bt Lazio 0; Chievo Verona 1 (Gennaro Sardo 33) bt Juventus 0; Fiorentina 1 (Adrian Mutu 51) lost to Bologna 2 (Henry Gimenez 28, Marco Di Vaio 45); Sampdoria 1 (Giampaolo Pazzini 45-pen) drew with Catania 1 (Cristian Llama 14).

On Saturday: Bari 2 (Paulo Barreto 60-pen, 64-pen) drew with Inter Milan 2 (Goran Pandev 68, Diego Milito 74-pen); Cagliari 3 (Joaquin Larrivey 3, 50, Jeda 63) bt Livorno 0. — Agencies

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