Valencia moved into third position after beating Héctor Cúper’s Mallorca 3-o in Mestalla with three finely worked goals.

David Albelda steered home a shot from the edge of the area that curled around a crowd of players and into the corner of the net a minute after the break.

In the 65th minute a fine cross from Pablo Aimar saw Vicente produce a fine volley which Toni Prats acrobatically saved, but David Villa pounced on the rebound and performed an overhead kick from close range to double the home side’s advantage.

The third goal came from substitute Fabio Aurelio as he ran onto another cross from Aimar and sent a low volley flying past the keeper to cap a convincing display by Quique Sánchez Flores’ side.