Atlético Madrid 0 - Valencia 3

Atlético: Burgos; Santi, García Calvo (Hibic 20'), Lequi, Sergi; Simeone, Diego Rivas; Ortíz (Ibagaza 51'), Paunovic, Rodrigo (Nikolaidis 77'); Fernando Torres. 4-2-3-1.
Valencia: Cañizares; Curro Torres, Marchena, Pellegrino (David Navarro 59'), Carboni; Albelda, Baraja; Jorge López (Canobbio 72'), Aimar, Vicente; Oliveira (Mista 46'). 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Atlético: Santi, Sergi, Diego Rivas, Ortíz, Paunovic for Gaspar, Pinola, Novo, Jorge, Musampa / Valencia: Curro Torres, Aimar for Garrido, Mista.

Goals:
0-1. 68. Vicente. Curled shot wide of Burgos after Aimar crossed from right.
0-2. 76. Mista. Ran on to square pass from Aimar to place shot wide of keeper.
0-3. 93. Mista. Took reverse pass from Aimar and rounded Burgos to score.

Valencia beat a poor Atlético Madrid 0-3 on Saturday night to move to the top of the table pending Sunday's games. Free of the pressure of the Champions League this year, Rafa Benítez lined up a strong side, with Aimar back in the line up and Curro Torres returning for his first game after a long injury. Gregorio Manzano made five changes to his team after some disappointing results, leaving Musampa and Novo in the stands and bringing in new signing Diego Rivas and youngster Ortíz into midfield together with Paunovic, who got the nod ahead of new boy Ibagaza, who the manager considered was not yet fully match fit.

The only play in the first half though came from the visitors, with Vicente and Aimar shooting just wide and Burgos saving from Baraja. Oliveira still appeared to be lost though up front, and he was replaced by Mista at the break. Six minutes into the restart Manzano decided it was time to call on Ibagaza, and for a few minutes the crowd's excitement at his appearance inspired the team, with Rivas very close to scoring.

But it was just a flash in the pan, and in the 68th minute an inspired Aimar combined with Mista to set up Vicente for him to beat Burgos. And then a few minutes later Aimar won the ball off Lequi and squared it across for Mista to add a second. Manzano brought on Nikolaidis, but it was already over and with the game running in to injury time, Aimar found his strike partner again with a defence splitting pass for him to round the keeper and score from a tight angle. The Atlético fans booed off their players and threw cushions on to the pitch at the end, and Manzano has to get his act together if he is to remain in the job much longer.