Sevilla earned a surprise win at Valencia while Villarreal also picked up an away triumph at Athletic.
Relegation-threatened sides give themselves hope
Sevilla earned a surprise win at Valencia in the Primera Division while Villarreal also picked up an away triumph at Athletic.
Malaga gave themselves relegation hope while Sporting Gijon, Levante, Osasuna and Racing Santander all secured victories in Spain.
Valencia dominated their clash with
Sevilla at the Mestalla but were unable to break through and ended up losing 1-0.
Ivan Rakitic's fine finish in the 72nd minute was the only goal of the game as Los Che could not find a way past the excellent Javi Varas.
Villarreal put their recent indifferent domestic form behind them with a valuable three-point haul against fellow European hopefuls
Athletic Bilbao at San Mames, 1-0 the final score.
Although they have tasted success in the Europa League recently, beating Bayer Leverkusen home and away to reach the quarter-finals, Villarreal had won just one of their previous seven league matches, but they were victorious again thanks to Marco Ruben's second-half header.
Sporting Gijon gave their hopes of surviving the drop a further boost whilst damaging
Almeria's own chances after claiming a narrow 1-0 win in the clash between the two relegation rivals.
Miguel De Las Cuevas' hotly-disputed early strike proved the difference as Sporting, who started the match one spot and three points above 18th-placed Almeria, continued their recent revival with their seventh win of the campaign - five of which have come in the last 11 games.
Salomon Rondon hit both goals as
Malaga boosted their chances of survival with a precious 2-0 win at home to
Espanyol.
The Venezuela striker scored twice in the first 25 minutes to give the Andalusians only their fourth home win in the league this season.
It was also a second successive win for Manuel Pellegrini's side, who had beaten Real Sociedad by the same scoreline at Anoeta last weekend.
Crucial step
Osasuna took a huge step towards safety as they thrashed struggling
Hercules 4-0 in Alicante to move into the top half of the table with nine rounds of the championship remaining.
Goals from Javier Camunas and Nelson saw the Pamplona-based side go two up before the break, before second-half strikes from Krisztian Vadocz and Kike Sola sealed an emphatic victory for the northerners.
On-loan forward Giovani dos Santos struck a second-half winner to give
Racing Santander a 2-1 win against
Real Sociedad and ease themselves away from relegation trouble.
After a first half littered with shots from distance, Santander took the lead with a spectacular opener from Kennedy Bakircioglu.
Antoine Griezmann brought Sociedad level after the break, before Tottenham forward Giovani settled matters.
A late Ruben free-kick earned
Levante a 1-0 victory against
Deportivo La Coruna at the Estadio Riazor and maintained the Valencia club's impressive recent run of form.
Deportivo have now suffered back-to-back defeats having previously been unbeaten in five, while Levante's success means they have lost just once in nine league matches.
