David Villa converted two penalties Sunday to lead Valencia to a 4-1 win over Getafe and back into the race for the Spanish league's Champions League places. Juanma Mata and Raul Albiol also scored for Valencia, which took advantage of other results to move to within two points of fourth-place Villarreal. Javier Casquero scored a penalty for Getafe, which stayed in the relegation fight. Villarreal has 48 points, two more than Valencia, while Atletico Madrid, Deportivo La Coruna and Malaga - all losers this weekend - remained on 43. The top four teams qualify for Europe's elite competition next season. Barcelona leads the league with 72 points after a 1-0 victory at Valladolid on Saturday. Defending champion Real Madrid maintained its pursuit with a 1-0 win at Malaga, but still trails the Catalan club by six points. Sevilla, which beat Recreativo Huelva 1-0, is third with 57 points. Walter Pandiani scored two goals as Osasuna beat Atletico 4-2 to move out of the relegation zone. Osasuna jumped to 14th with 32 points - two more than Recreativo Huelva, which dropped to 18th. Also, Ivan Alonso and Ivan de la Pena scored as Espanyol beat Deportivo 3-1 for only its second win in 20 league games, but the club remained last with just 25 points - six from safety with nine games to play. Nicola Zigic and Gonzalo Colsa scored second-half goals to improve Racing Santander's chances of staying up as it won a north coast derby at Sporting Gijon, 2-0. Santander jumped to 10th with 36 points, while Sporting is three points ahead of Recreativo. Earlier this week, cash-strapped Valencia secured a $67 million loan to pay its players for the first time since February, the last time it won at the Mestalla stadium. Mata controlled David Silva's long ball in the 20th before sending a half-volley under Jacobo Sanz. Lucas Licht then tripped Silva inside the area and Villa converted in the 25th, but Casquero replied in the 49th after David Albelda was whistled for tangling with Ikechukwu Uche. In the 56th, Albiol beat Sanz with a hard shot from outside the area that came off the inside of the post. Getafe, which is one point clear of Recreativo, was reduced to 10 men when Sanz tripped Villa inside the area for his second booking. Substitute goalkeeper Oscar Ustari guessed right but couldn't stop Villa from scoring his 21st goal of the season in the 60th. The Spain striker is 6-for-6 on spot kicks this season. Also Saturday, Almeria beat Villarreal 3-0, Athletic Bilbao scored a late goal to beat Mallorca 2-1 and Numancia rallied for a 3
