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Real Mallorca hit Valencia's Champions bid

  • Story Highlights
  • Strugglers Real Mallorca shock Valencia with 3-1 Primera Liga win Sunday
  • Jose Jurado scored twice and Jose Marti converted penalty in the first half
  • Real Madrid cut Barcelona's lead to 12 points after 1-0 win over La Coruna
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(CNN) -- Valencia's Champions League ambitions suffered a huge setback when they crashed to a shock 3-1 defeat against strugglers Real Mallorca on Sunday.

Jose Jurado's double and a Jose Marti penalty did the damage in the first half while Real Madrid later cut Barcelona's lead at the top to 12 points with a 1-0 home win against Deportivo La Coruna.

Raul moved to within one goal from equalling Alfredo di Stefano's club goalscoring record as Real moved three points clear of third-placed Sevilla, who lost 2-0 against Racing Santander

It was a fifth straight win for coach coach Juande Ramos who joined Real on a six-month deal after being fired by Premier League Tottenham.

Mallorca propped up the Primera Liga before kick-off, but took a surprise eighth minute lead against Valencia through Jurado and struck twice inside as many minutes with Marti converting a penalty before Jurado grabbed his second.

Valencia boss Unai Emery, whose side stay four points adrift of Sevilla, responded with two changes at the interval and Vicente pulled a goal back but it was too little, too late. Emery called it his most 'painful' day as coach.

Mallorca moved off the bottom to be replaced by Osasuna.

Atletico Madrid also lost ground on the top three after a 1-1 draw at Malaga who had won four out of their last five games in the league.

They opened the scoring through Antonio Apono after 22 minutes.

Dutch centre-half Johnny Heitinga equalised for Atletico just before half-time but they are now six points off Real and Sevilla.

Malaga are level on points with Atletico after a superb first half of the season.

Elsewhere Espanyol's third coach this season, Mauricio Pochettino, saw his side draw 1-1 with Valladolid in his first match in charge. Espanyol lie second from bottom four points from safety.

Pochettino's next task is to eliminate local neighbours Barcelona from the Kings Cup with the city rivals facing off at Camp Nou on Thursday in the quarterfinal second leg with the first match finishing 0-0.

Barcelona continued their march towards to the title with a resounding 4-1 over Numancia on Saturday to move 15 points clear at the summit.

Meanwhile, club president Joan Laporta accused Real of using the media to try to spread rumors about the possibility of Lionel Messi heading for the Santiago Bernabeu.

Messi scored twice in the 4-1 win against Numancia on Saturday that preserved Barca's hughe title lead to take his goals tally to 14 and vowed to stay at Camp Nou as long as he was wanted.

"I'll never leave Barca," said Messi. "I'll only leave if they throw me out. Barcelona is my home."

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