European review - La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Le Championnat

Such a result would have been unthinkable a few weeks ago, with Valencia plummeting towards the relegation zone as they seemed unable to arrest their catastrophic form under new coach Ronald Koeman, but the signs were there as Valencia put out Barcelona in the semi-finals of the King's Cup in midweek.

Koeman's men took an early lead through David Villa, but Madrid hit back with a Raul double and seemed set for victory until Fabio Cannavaro fouled David Silva and Villa converted the penalty.

Madrid laid siege to the Valencia goal but German keeper Timo Hildebrand pulled off several fine saves, and then Angel Arizmendi broke away in the last minute, rounded Cannavaro, and beat Iker Casillas at the near post.

For once, Barcelona were able to take advantage, thanks to a stellar performance from 17-year-old striker Bojan Krkic, stepping up to the plate in the continued absence of Ronaldinho through injury, to lead a 4-1 drubbing of Valladolid.

Krkic set up goals for Samuel Eto'o and Andres Iniesta, then claimed two of his own as Barca cut their bitter rivals' lead to four points.

Villarreal are only two points behind Barca, but they needed an 83rd-minute goal from Guillermo Franco to win 2-1 at bottom side Levante.

Atletico Madrid strengthened their grip on the final Champions League spot as they won 2-1 at closest challengers Sevilla, their first victory there for 15 years.

Argentine teenager Sergio Aguero grabbed the winner, and Sevilla's chances disappeared after he was headbutted by substitute Enzo Maresca, who was sent off.

The leaders also came unstuck in Italy, as stuttering Inter Milan went down 2-1 at home to Juventus.

Mauro Camoranesi and David Trezeguet put the visitors two up in the second half, but Portuguese midfielder Maniche pulled one back and then hit the post in injury time.

Roma cut the gap to four points by beating strugglers Empoli 2-1, but needed a headed winner from Christian Panucci on 63 minutes, six minutes after they were reduced to 10 for a bad tackle by Simone Perrotta.

Fiorentina stayed four points clear of AC Milan in the final Champions League spot as a late Giampaolo Pazzini goal saw off Lazio, who had played most of the game with 10 men after Massimo Mutarelli's dismissal.

Milan also won 1-0, Brazilian teenager Alexandre Pato finally breaking the deadlock at Torino after a string of missed chances.

In Germany, the title race is all but over as Bayern Munich produced a storming performance to beat closest rivals Bayer Leverkusen 2-1.

Luca Toni, a £8.5m summer signing, scored twice to take his League tally to 16, and only poor finishing by Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski kept the score down before Dmitri Bulykin's late consolation.

Hamburg are Bayern's closest challengers, seven points behind, as they could only draw 1-1 at Wolfsburg, for whom Danijel Ljuboja levelled Bastian Reinhardt's early strike.

The game was more remarkable for an incredible last 10 minutes when two players from each side were sent off.

Werder Bremen, who were level on points with Bayern at the winter break, are now nine adrift as they could only draw 1-1 at Arminia Bielefeld, a side they beat 8-1 at home earlier in the season.

Bordeaux's brief threat to Lyon taking their seventh consecutive title in France is virtually over as they lost 3-1 at Valenciennes, thanks to late goals by Rangers reject Filip Sebo and Steve Savidan.

Lyon are nine points clear as they beat Paris St Germain 4-2 with late goals by Sidney Govou and Juninho after PSG had levelled following two early strikes by Fred.

PSG remain in the relegation zone and in danger of going down for the first time since they were formed in 1974.

Nancy, in third, increased their advantage over Marseille to six points by beating bottom club Metz 2-1 only thanks to a Moncef Zerka winner on 88 minutes.

Marseille crashed 1-0 at home to struggling Sochaux, who took the lead with a Guirane N'Daw lob on two minutes and held out with some stalwart defence to move out of the drop zone.