Juande Ramos's in-form side were a long way from their best but a goal in each half from Raul and Arjen Robben settled a dour encounter,

Barca beat Recreativo Huelva 2-0 at the Nou Camp last night.

Third-placed Sevilla slumped to their fifth home defeat of the season with Getafe's Jaime Gavilan netting the only goal eight minutes from time.

Valencia moved above local rivals Villarreal and into the final Champions League place following a 3-2 win at Sporting Gijon.

Los Che had twice gone ahead either side of the break through David Silva and a David Villa penalty.

Sporting, who are just three points above the drop zone, got back on level terms on both occasions with David Barral's penalty and a Mate Bilic header 20 minutes from time seemingly giving them a share of the spoils.

But Juan Mata delivered the decisive blow in emphatic style with a crisply-hit 20-yard shot that flew in to the bottom corner with just two minutes to go.

Villarreal lost 2-0 at home to Malaga last night.

Atletico Madrid remained in touch with the top four after an impressive 2-1 victory at Deportivo La Coruna.

Sergio Aguero put the Rojiblancos ahead on the stroke of half-time and Simao Sabrosa made it 2-0 with 20 minutes to go.

Depor pulled one back late on through Rodolfo Bodipo.

At the other end of the table, the meeting of the bottom two between Numancia and Espanyol finished goalless.

Both clubs look in serious danger of slipping through the trap door, especially as many of the sides in the bottom half had successful afternoons.

Real Betis started the day just outside the bottom three but moved up to 13th with a 3-2 win at Racing Santander.

Under new coach Jose Maria Nogues for the first time, Betis came back from going behind early to secure their sixth away win of the season.

Mid-table Racing will point, with some justification, to the sending-off just after half-time of goalkeeper Antonio Tono as the turning point.

At the time the score was 2-2 after a frenetic first half, Peter Luccin and Nikola Zigic scoring for the hosts either side of efforts from Edu and Achille Emana.

Emana netted his second of the afternoon shortly after Tono's dismissal with Racing's 10 men rarely threatening an equaliser.

Osasuna and Real Mallorca also enjoyed morale-boosting wins.

Cleber Santana and Gonzalo Castro scored as Mallorca beat fellow-strugglers Almeria 2-0 while Osasuna beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1.

Massoud Shojaei put the Pamplona-based club ahead only for Aitor Ocio to equalise after 26 minutes.

But Ocio was then sent-off six minutes into the second half and the 10 men could not hold out as Sergio grabbed a late winner.