Sevilla maintained their pursuit of Barcelona and Real Madrid with a hard-fought 3-2 win against Villarreal.

The home side went ahead through Luis Fabiano after nine minutes only for Robert Pires to level with a crisp volley shortly before the half hour mark.

David Fuster handed the Yellow Submarine a surprise lead after 59 minutes but the prolific Fabiano equalised almost immediately before substitute Fredi Kanoute grabbed the winner within three minutes of his introduction.

The win moved Sevilla back to within three points of Real Madrid while they are four adrift of leaders Barcelona.

Both Madrid and Barca won.

Valencia are a point behind Sevilla after a routine 3-1 defeat of Real Zaragoza.

Captain David Villa, against his former club, scored one and made one for Pablo Hernandez after Juan Mata had given Los Che and early lead.

Angel Lafita grabbed Zaragoza's sole reply.
Espanyol's seven-match unbeaten league run came to an end as they went down 1-0 to in-form Sporting Gijon at El Molinon.

Mate Bilic struck the only goal of the game after three minutes to extend Sporting's unbeaten league run to five matches and move them to within a point of the top six.

Sporting are level on points with Athletic Bilbao, who won 2-0 at Racing Santander.

Carlos Gurpegui gave the visitors the lead after half an hour and Andoni Iraola added a second from the penalty spot 15 minutes from time to seal a second consecutive win for the Basques.

Real Valladolid and struggling Xerez drew 0-0 while an early own goal from Josetxo and a late Kalu Uche strike helped lowly Almeria record only their third victory of the season at the expense of Osasuna.