Two goals from Ruud van Nistelrooy earned La Liga leaders Real Madrid another three points as they beat basement boys Levante 2-0 on Sunday.The Holland striker opened the scoring from the penalty spot with just 15 minutes remaining and sealed the win late on with a neat finish from the edge of the area.

The win restores Madrid's seven-point lead over Barcelona at the top of the table while Levante are 13 points adrift of fourth-bottom Recreativo Huelva.

Atletico Madrid climbed up to third after scraping a 1-0 win over troubled Valencia.

Sergio Aguero netted the only goal of a scrappy encounter at the Vicente Calderon as Atletico took advantage of Espanyol's shock defeat at Almeria to move into the top three.

Valencia, who have lurched from one setback to another over the last few months, can consider themselves slightly unlucky not to have taken anything from the game though after twice hitting the woodwork through Nikola Zigic in the second half.

Espanyol's 17-match unbeaten run came to a sorry end on Sunday when they were beaten 1-0 by Almeria.

The Barcelona-based side produced a sterile performance and went down to a late strike from substitute Kalu Uche.

Despite their defeat, Ernesto Valverde's side finish the first half of the campaign in the Champions League places, while Almeria move up to a respectable 10th position.

Villarreal twice came from behind to beat Deportivo La Coruna 4-3 and boost their own hopes of a place in the Champions League next season.

Sergio Gonzalez put the Galicians in front with a penalty on 27 minutes, but Giuseppe Rossi levelled moments later with another spot-kick.

Deportivo then retook the lead on the hour mark through Pablo Amo, but were pegged back again by Nihat Kahveci minutes later.

The Turkey striker popped up again with his side's third on 69 minutes and substitute Jon-Dahl Tomasson added a fourth from the penalty spot late on to secure a valuable victory for the hosts and compound the misery of a Depor side short on confidence and now four points from safety in the Primera Liga.

The visitors also finished with 10 men after Pablo Amo was sent off for the foul which led to the penalty, but did grab a late consolation through Andres Guardado.

Diego Milito's double was not enough to give Real Zaragoza a much-needed win at home to Real Mallorca - they were held to a 2-2 draw.

The Argentina striker's second of the afternoon put Zaragoza in front after Fernando Varela had stunned La Romareda crowd with the opener after 17 minutes.

But the hosts, who are struggling to reproduce last year's form when they finished sixth, could not hold on and half-time substitute Daniel Guiza netted an equaliser after 62 minutes.

Joseba Llorente scored a superb hat-trick as Real Valladolid moved up to ninth with a deserved 3-1 win over Recreativo Huelva.

Javier Camunas bagged Recre's consolation.

Racing Santander maintained their chase of the top five after late goals from Gonzalo Colsa and Pablo Alvarez gave them a 2-0 smash-and-grab win over struggling Osasuna.

And in the day's other game, Real Betis survived a second-half fightback from Getafe to win 3-2.

Mariano Pavone (2) and Edu put the hosts 3-0 up before a penalty from Ruben De la Red two minutes later and a Manu strike set up a nervy climax.

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