Tuesday, April 22 2008 -- Week 33 in La Liga didn't affect the title race much since this particular campaign is well past the helping point but this weekend in the Spanish first division did help reshuffle the end of the table. And make the fog denser.

Thick in the woods in the Spanish top flight are Valencia. Last season's UEFA Champions League quarter-finalists are truly, depressingly and desperately on their way to the Segunda Division. Ronald Koeman's side were mauled 5-1 at the Sam Mames by Basque giants Athletic de Bilbao on Sunday which culminated in Koeman being presented with the axe on Monday by the Valencia board. Los Che were just one goal down in the first half but two from Llorente and one a piece from Iraola and Aduriz were enough to inflict the worst defeat on Valencia in 25 years! Valencia then remain stuck on 39 points from 33 matches and remain 16th in the table. But the trouble is that they are now just 2---yes, only 2---points above the much dreaded dropzne.

It was actually Real Zaragoza who helped reduce the gap between Valencia and safety by conjuring up a remarkably heartening 3-0 victory over fellow relegation candidates Recreativo de Huelva on Saturday. A brace from former AC Milan and Real Betis striker Ricardo Oliviera secured all 3 points for Zaragoza who have now picked up 4 points from their last couple of matches.

Zaragoza and Recre are locked on 37 points but Zaragoza are ahead on head-to-head record. Recrea are third from bottom; the other two bottom three clubs, Real Murcia and Levate, are more or less assured o dropping down.

There are a few other clubs teetering on the gray area between relegation and safety, most notably Osasuna. The club from Pamplona lost again, this tome to Deportivo la Coruna to a Sergi penalty and stay 1 point above Valencia and Real Valladolid. Valladolid succumbed to a 2-0 away defeat to Villarreal who had Kahveci Nihat and Santi Cazorla driving them to second in the table.

Getafe, who lost to Valencia in the Copa del Rey final at the Vicente Calderon last week, lost again! Michael Laudrup's side fell down—surprise!surprise!---to rock bottom Levante 3-1 in Valencia. This is Levante's second successive win in La Liga.

To the title challenge now and defending Spanish champions Real Madrid made all but certain that they shall celebrate their 31st La Liga triumph in the next few days. Bernd Schuster's side strolled to a comfortable 2-0 win over Racing Santander at El Sardinero on Sunday. Captain Raul gifted the visitors the lead inside the first 15 minutes and tremendous pressure on the hosts ultimately reaped dividends in the dying seconds of the match with Gonzalo Higuain scored to make it a 2-0 victory for the Merengues.

Real stay 10 points ahead of Villarreal who now leapfrog FC Barcelona into second after Barca faltered to a 0-0 draw with Espanyol Barcelona in a dull Catalan derby on Saturday. Barca now have just 1 win in their last 8 league matches and are 1 point behind Villarreal.

Racing, on the other hand, stay 5th in the standings and remain in the hunt for the fourth and final UEFA Champions League spot in site of losing to Real Madrid for the other two sides challenging for the fourth position lost too. Atletico Madrid still occupy that prized spot even though they were convincingly beaten 3-1 by Real Betis at the Calderon who not so long ago were fighting for survival.

Atleti stay 1 point ahead of Racing and 3 ahead of Sevilla FC who went one goal better than Atleti by losing 4-1 at home to his season's surprise package Almeria who climb up to 3 points behind the Andaluians in 7th.

In this weekend's last match, Real Mallorca dumped Real Murcia 4-1 away from home on Sunday, Guiza hitting a marvelous hat-trick for the Islanders.