Tamudo puts freeze on Valencia's title hopes

Atletico de Madrid's Aguilera (Front) vies with Mallorca's Servian Delibasic during their Liga match at Son Moix stadium in Palma de Mallorca.

Valencia's ambitions of regaining the Spanish league title faded after they went down 2-1 at struggling Espanyol.

Spanish international striker Raul Tamudo got both of Espanyol's goals, in a game played in a snow storm, to give the Barcelona-based club a glimmer of hope that they can avoid relegation.

Mista Ferrer headed a reply for Valencia after 78 minutes while Espanyol were still mentally celebrating Tamudo's second goal two minutes earlier but, despite striving hard for a late equaliser, Valencia suffered their second league loss in eight days.

Real Madrid now have a five-point lead over Valencia with 56 points from 25 games, and could add to their advantage if they can beat Celta Vigo later at home on Sunday.

Deportivo have 50 points, starting the day one point behind Valencia, and will leapfrog over their rivals into second place if they can beat Barcelona later on Sunday.

Tamudo opened the scoring seven minutes before the break when Ivan De La Pena found him with a skillful defence-splitting pass.

His second goal will be one that causes Valencia keeper Santiago Canizares to cringe when he sees the replays.

Canizares completely fluffed his attempt to catch Tamudo's shot and the ball hit him in the face before spinning into the net.

Athletic Bilbao kept up their challenge for a place in Europe next season with a 1-0 win at Villarreal to stay in fifth.

Like everywhere else in snowy Spain, goals were at a premium and Jonan Garcia got the only goal of the game.

Garcia's debut strike in the top flight of Spanish football came after he finished off a Joseba Etxeberria cross just before half time.

Atletic Madrid left it late but grabbed all three points with a 1-0 win at Real Mallorca, Fernando Torres getting the winner for the visitors a minute into injury time.

Torres had earlier gone close on several occasions but finally found his target with a stunning shot from 20 metres for his 13th goal of the season, which moved Atletico up to sixth.

Malaga's Salva Ballesta retained his place as the top Spanish scorer in the first division when he got the only goal in Malaga's 1-0 win over a lacklustre Racing Santander.

Salva made his case for an international recall ahead of Euro 2004 by dancing through the Racing defence before bagging his 15th goal of the season.

At the other end of the table, the misery of bottom club Murcia increased with a 1-0 loss at home to Osasuna.

Cameroon international Pierre Webo showed his country's selectors they might have been wrong to discard him from the squad that went to the African Nations Cup last month, when he pounced on a loose ball after Murcia goalkeeper Roberto Bonano could only parry away a shot from John Aloisi.

Aloisi later had a penalty saved by Bonano, after scoring initially from the spot before the referee ruled that the kick be retaken after Osasuna players had encroached on the area.

Spanish football league table ahead of Sunday's two late matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points):

Note: Racing Santander deducted one point for fielding an ineligible player