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On Sunday, the remaining matches of the 24th round of the Spanish championship ("La Liga") were played. Defending champions "Valencia", currently going through a crisis, suffered another defeat to "Racing" in Santander, while in the last round of matches, "Villarreal" snatched a particularly impressive victory in the final minutes of the game.
One of the most attention-grabbing matches took place in Seville, where "Betis" and "Deportivo" demonstrated very attacking football. Despite "Deportivo" leading in shots on goal 8-4, "Betis" celebrated victory. The heroes of the Seville fans were Assuncao, who scored two goals, and goalkeeper Doblas.
"Valencia", going through a crisis, had to admit defeat to "Racing" in Santander. After this loss, defending champions "Valencia" dropped from fourth to sixth place, only ahead of "Espanyol" in seventh due to a better goal difference. Meanwhile, the last-place "Numancia" team secured their fourth victory of the season by defeating "Albacete" away 2-1.
Today's matches also saw two goalless draws: in Getafe, the home team held Pamplona's "Osasuna", while "Levante" played out a draw at home against "Zaragoza".
"Malaga" achieved a high-scoring victory at home, defeating Barcelona's "Espanyol" 3-2. It's worth noting that despite trailing by three goals since the 34th minute, the visitors managed to soften the result.
One of the most interesting matches of the round took place in Villarreal, where "Villarreal" managed to recover from two goals scored by Spain's national team forward Fernando Torres and snatch victory against Madrid's "Atletico". Uruguayan Diego Forlan scored a goal for the hosts in the second half, while Perea scored the equalizing goal in his own net.
Just when it seemed the match would end in a fair draw secured by the hosts, "Villarreal" defender Juan Pablo Sorin snatched victory for the hosts in the final minutes. This victory allowed "Villarreal" to surpass "Valencia" and climb from seventh to fifth place in the league table.
Sunday's results:
- "Albacete" 1 - 2 "Numancia"
- "Getafe" 0 - 0 "Osasuna"
- "Levante" 0 - 0 "Zaragoza"
- "Malaga" 3 - 2 "Espanyol"
- "Real Betis" 2 - 0 "Deportivo"
- "Racing Santander" 1 - 0 "Valencia"
- "Villarreal" 3 - 2 "Atletico Madrid"
