Valencia squandered another lead as it drew 1-1 with Levante Sunday, endangering its hold on third place in the Spanish league. For the sixth time in its last eight games, Valencia failed to secure a win after scoring first and dropped valuable points at home. Also, Radamel Falcao scored his 20th Spanish league goal of the season as Atletico Madrid cruised past Getafe 3-0. Levante was the more dangerous side early on at Mestalla stadium, but its crosstown rival Valencia went ahead 10 minutes before halftime with a move started by Aritz Aduriz, playing instead of the suspended Roberto Soldado. The Basque striker threaded a superb short pass through a trio of defenders and Sofiane Feghouli laid the ball off for Jonas to tap into the empty net. Arouna Kone equalized for Levante through a counterattack in the 54th. After recovering the ball in midfield, Jose Barkero lofted a long ball into the area that Valdo Lopez headed down for Kone to fire in and take his league goal tally to 11 this season. The draw left Valencia one point ahead of fourth-place Malaga and three points in front of fifth-place Levante with eight matches to play. Spain's top four finishers qualify for the Champions League. Atletico got going in the 24th as Eduardo Salvio continued his impressive play with the Argentine forward heading Filipe Luis' cross high over goalkeeper Miguel Angel Moya to land under the far corner. Brazilian playmaker Diego headed Falcao's cross off the crossbar and volleyed home the rebound to make it 2-0 in the 62nd. Falcao guided home Juanfran Torres' cross in the 77th minute to cap an easy victory at the Vicente Calderon stadium. Atletico climbed within five points of fourth-place Malaga and the last Champions League qualifying spot. Getafe is three points behind its Spanish capital neighbor. On Saturday, Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to power Real Madrid's 5-1 rout of Osasuna, while Barcelona stayed within six points of the league leaders with a 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao. “I dream of winning La Liga and I haven't considered for one moment that we could lose it,” said top scorer Ronaldo. “But there are still eight games to play and we know that we have to keep winning because Barcelona are still on our heels.” Also, Zaragoza escaped last place with a 2-1 win over now bottom Sporting Gijon, Granada left Racing Santander in the penultimate position with a 1-0 away win, and Real Betis beat Malaga 2-1 to end its six-game unbeaten run.
