MADRID (AFP) - Goals from Nihat Kahveci and Santi Cazorla helped gave Villarreal a 2-0 victory over Valladolid and moved them up into second place in the Spanish first division on Sunday.
Nihat opened the scoring after 15 minutes when the Turkish international picked up a long pass from Cazorla and rounded Valladolid defender Alexis Suarez before hammering the ball past the visitors' teenage goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo.
Villarreal could have been three ahead at the break after good efforts late in the first half by the rampaging pair but Valladolid rode their luck.
However, the visitors were soon further behind when Cazorla got on the scoresheet barely a minute after the break, after teaming up again with Nihat.
Nihat was once more allowed far too much freedom on the right side of his opponents' area and the Valladolid defenders also left Cazorla enough space for him to clinically finish off Nihat's inch-perfect pass.
Villarreal now have 62 points from 33 games with five games remaining.
They are now one point ahead of third-placed Barcelona, who were held to a 0-0 draw with local rivals Espanyol on Saturday, but are seven points behind league leaders Real Madrid who have a game in hand.
Real play at Racing Santander later on Sunday.
At the other end of the table, bottom club Levante staved off relegation for a week thanks to a 3-1 win over beaten Spanish Cup finalists Getafe.
Two goals in three minutes at the end of the first half from Juanma Gomez and Mathieu Berson, the latter helped by a terrible error from Getafe goalkeeper Pato Abondanzieri, gave Levante a 2-0 lead at half time.
Pedro Leon then added to Levante's tally after 53 minutes before Ruben De La Red reduced the deficit from the penalty spot just before the hour, after Levante goalkeeper Manolo Reina had made a late and clumsy challenge on Braulio Nobrega.
However, despite the victory, Levante are still 12 points away from safety.
If the Levante players carry out their threat to strike at Recreativo Huelva next Sunday over unpaid wages and bonuses, they will also forfeit that match and so be relegated.
Club captain and the players' spokesman Luis Rubiales, after being substituted late in the game, took off his jersey as he left the field to reveal an undershirt with the slogan 'Solucion Ya' - resolve this now - written on it.
Murcia lie second from bottom and look set to join Levante in the Spanish second division next season, after just one year in the top flight, after crashing 4-1 at home to Real Mallorca.
Daniel Guiza and Juan Arango got two early goals to put Mallorca comfortably in the driving seat.
Guiza then pressed his claims to be part of the Spanish squad going to the Euro 2008 finals this summer by getting another goal just after the break and completing his hat-trick five minutes before the whistle, all his strikes coming as a result of some very slack defending.
Fernando Baiano got a late consolation goal for Murcia.
Sergio Gonzalez got the only goal of the game in Deportivo la Coruna's 1-0 win at Osasuna, scoring from the penalty spot after 65 minutes after Cesar Cruchaga had brought down Felipe Luis.
