Los Che beaten by Ramos' Real

A triumph for Los Che would have seen Valencia close the gap on Liga leaders Barcelona at the top of the table.

However, it was Real who claimed the points in just Ramos' second league game in charge thanks to Gonzalo Higuain's early goal.

Just three minutes were on the clock at El Santiago Bernabeu when the Argentine forward guided the ball home from Arjen Robben's mazy run.

Although both sides pushed forward in numbers, the game surprisingly failed to see more goals.

Valencia applied plenty of late pressure as they fought in search of a leveller, while Guti should have made the game safe deep into injury-time after another fine Robben run.

In the evening kick-off, Atletico Madrid capitalised on Valencia's defeat by running out 3-2 winners at Espanyol.

Atletico wasted little time getting their noses in front with former Espanyol man Maxi Rodriguez returning to punish his ex-club.

Sergio Aguero made the break down the left and his cross was not dealt with by the home side's defence allowing Maxi to spank the ball home with aplomb.

Aguero came close to doubling the visitors' advantage, but after creditably staying on his feet under pressure from Daniel Jarque he rolled his shot agonisingly wide of the far post.

Espanyol hit back after the interval with Sergio Sanchez netting a fine equaliser. A long ball from the back caught Atletico out allowing Sanchez to lash home in emphatic fashion.

However, Atletico, to their credit, did not panic and regained their advantage late on courtesy of Aguero's boot.

Espanyol's defence did their best to keep out the striker, but the Argentine hit-man bundled the ball home at the third attempt in off the near post.

Maxi rubbed salt in Espanyol's wounds late on when he added an injury-time third, although Espanyol refused to go down without a fight as Valdo netted an even later consolation.

Hooray, RM won, they really needed that, or else Barcelona would have a huge gap at the top. And RM needed a win to break there bad form, Congrats
And Atletico Madrid are doing good this season, im sure they will want to qualify for the CL again this season.

RM were very lucky, noly 1-0, but Atl Madrid, they are doing well in both competition. There a reallly good team now

But, in Spain they are known to be a very unlucky team, they could do really well, and lose it all, they have done that for many years

Aguirre praises players after win

Aguirre sent his Atletico players off on their Christmas holidays with a pat on the back after the victory over lowly Espanyol lifted the in-form Rojiblancos into the top two of La Liga.

However, Aguirre admits his team rode their luck somewhat at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona and felt Espanyol were unfortunate not to take anything from the game.

Atletico climbed up to second place after winning the match 3-2, with captain Maxi Rodriguez scoring a brace and his fellow Argentinian Sergio Aguero also getting on the scoresheet.

That extended Atletico's unbeaten record to 15 matches and ensured they would achieve their goal of finishing 2008 in the Champions League places, but Aguirre knows it was far from comfortable for his troops.

"It was not an easy game and I felt it was very even. I think that Espanyol deserved something more, although at the end the game has fallen our way," he said.

Maxi put Atletico 1-0 ahead in the seventh minute but Espanyol battled back to equalise through a superb Sergio Sanchez goal in the 58th minute.

That looked set to be the end of the scoring, but Aguero showed great tenacity to put his side back in front nine minutes from time before Maxi added a fine third late on, making Valmiro Valdo's subsequent goal for Espanyol no more than a consolation.

"We felt comfortable playing on the counter-attack, but I think we could have killed the game off earlier," Aguirre said.

"The team is in a state of grace and we were lucky here."

Overall though, Aguirre was full of praise for his team after a fine end to the calendar year.

"The players deserve the eight days of holiday I have given them," he added.

"They have achieved the objective which we set weeks ago, which was to end the year in the Champions League places.

"Now they will have time to have a break and enjoy Christmas. They have to forget everything and enjoy themselves, as when we return to action the fixture list is very ugly."

Atletico are away to Valencia in their first league game back next year, before then meeting Barcelona twice in the Copa del Rey in the space of a week.

Im sure he will be happy, the result could have been alot different, but Aktk fought for a win, and they could prove themselves this year, good lck to them