Mallorca spoil Garrido debut to go fourth

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MADRID, Feb 7, 2010 (AFP) - Real Mallorca moved into fourth place with a late Jose Nunes goal sealing an impressive 10th consecutive home win as the islanders beat Villarreal 1-0 at the Ono Stadium on Sunday.

Portuguese centre-back Nunes netted on 81 minutes to maintain Mallorca's flawless home record as new Villarreal coach Juan Carlos Garrido tasted defeat in his first match in charge.

Mallorca go into the Champions League spots, a point above Sevilla, and have a perfect 30 points at home conceding just three goals in the process.

Villarreal are down in 10th and Garrido, the reserve team coach who replaced the sacked Ernesto Valverde, has his work cut out to get the Yellow Submarine into Europe.

In other matches, Deportivo La Coruna fell two points behind Mallorca in sixth after a 0-0 draw at Malaga on Sunday.

Athletic Bilbao closed to within two points of Depor with a 3-2 comeback win over Xerez on Sunday thanks to a brace from Spanish international Fernando Llorente.

Xerez prop up the table, as they have done for virtually the whole season, and are seven points from safety.

Sevilla travel to Real Zaragoza later on Saturday looking to reclaim fourth from Mallorca and stay in touch with third-placed Valencia who are currently six points ahead.

Sevilla face Getafe in the second leg of their Kings Cup semi-final on Wednesday holding a 2-0 lead but coach Manolo Jimenez said Zaragoza was the priority for now.

"We want to continue climbing towards third and the cup semi-final doesn't exisat until after the Zaragoza match," said Jimenez.

In Sunday's other match Racing Santander will be out for revenge against Atletico Madrid who crushed them 4-0 in the first leg of the Kings Cup semi-final in midweek to put one foot in the final.

The two sides meet on Thursday for the second leg of the semi-final but for now three points in the league is the priority.

"We have to be aware that we are going to compe up against an angry side full of resentment and there will be a hostile atmosphere," said Atletico coach Quique Sanchez Flores.

Racing are a point above Atletico in the league and the capital side are 13 points off the top four and the cup looks their best route into Europe at the moment.

At the top unbeaten Barcelona lead Real Madrid by five points after a gritty 2-1 home win over Getafe despite playing with ten men for over an hour.

"They all played marvellously - this game will make us stronger," said Barca coach Pep Guardiola. "I'm always proud of my players and they took a big step forward with this win."

Real beat Espanyol 3-0 to record their 11th consecutive home victory on Saturday courtesy of goals from Sergio Ramos, Kaka and Gonzalo Higuain.