Atletico down Villarreal

In the day's early match, Valencia piled the pressure on Villarreal, their rivals for third spot, with Pablo Hernandez scoring twice in a 2-1 comeback win at Mallorca.

After the matches Valencia have 54 points, four ahead of Villarreal.

At the Vicente Calderon Jose Antonio Reyes opened the scoring on five minutes with the best strike of the bunch, an effort bent from way out that found the top corner perfectly.

Giuseppe Rossi levelled for the Yellow Submarine on 34 minutes, sending a free-kick into the far corner following Santi Cazorla's touch to him.

However Villarreal had only scored five goals in six Liga games before this weekend and did not look as much of a threat as Atleti.

Filipe Luis saw a legitimate header chalked off for offside before half-time while Diego Forlan was flagged off, correctly this time, having scored soon after the break.

Filipe used quick feet to dance across the pitch, play a one-two with the superb Reyes and scoop a ball down the channel for Sergio Aguero - El Kun dinked the ball over Diego Lopez for 2-1 after 68 minutes.

Four minutes later it was 3-1, Forlan using Reyes for a one-two and finishing superbly.

Villarreal were out of ideas and their former star Forlan could have scored more late on, while sub Juanfran also missed an easy chance after the Uruguayan laid him on.