BARCELONA: Valencia coach Marcelino was sent off from the dugout for dissent before watching his side beat a luckless Espanyol 2-0 on Sunday for an eighth straight La Liga win to stay in touch with Barcelona ahead of next week’s mouthwatering showdown against the leaders.

In his first season, Garcia Toral has transformed Valencia from a team that had struggled to compete with the league’s best in recent years into Barca’s top challengers.

A rocket from Geoffrey Kondogbia put Valencia on their way to victory midway through the second half soon after Marcelino received his marching orders and Santi Mina sealed the victory late in the game.

“We want to beat Barcelona to be as high in the table as we can, but we still can’t talk about being candidates to win the title yet,” insisted Valencia assistant coach Ruben Uria, who faced the media.

However, the visitors had fortune on their side as Espanyol dominated for large spells and hit the woodwork twice.

“In the first half they got the better of us, but the team knew how to resist, stay compact, suffer and compete,” Mina told BeIN Sports Spain. “The big teams also win like this. The important thing was to win.”

Barca lead the standings on 34 points from 12 games, Valencia are second in 30, while Real Madrid are third and Atletico Madrid fourth, both on 24.

At the other end of the table, Malaga came from behind to edge a five-goal thriller against Deportivo la Coruna 3-2 to move off the bottom of the table and up to 18th on seven points.

Las Palmas prop up the table on six points as coach Paco Ayestaran stretched his La Liga record losing streak to 13 games in a 2-0 defeat at home to Levante.

Elsewhere, Athletic Bilbao’s veteran striker Aritz Aduriz scored a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Villarreal to save the Basque side from a fourth straight defeat.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2017