Atléti held by Valencia

The first half was a scrappy affair with Atlético in particular looking nervy in front of an expectant and success-starved home crowd, Atonio Lopez luck to escape unpunished and Emiliano Moretti lucky to escape uninjured after an horrific stamp on the Italian's ankle.

The best chance of the first 45 minutes fell to Valencia, David Villa somehow blasting over from six yards after a goalkeeping error from Ismael Falcon, in for a Leo Franco mourning the death of his father.

Fabio Aurelio forced the stand-in 'keeper into a superb save from a curling free-kick, while Atléti's best opportunity fell to Partin Petrov after a swift break from Fernando Torres found him unmarked - but Santiago Canizares dived low and touched the shot away with a good strong-armed save.

The second half saw more of the same, although Atléti looked the more dangerous, Torres' touch letting him down after latching onto a back-pass and a later effort from the right wing flashing just wide with Canizares beaten.

Torres was guilty of missing even more excellent opportunities, forcing a superb stop from Canizares after a great turn and shot in the box and from the subsequent corner somehow emulating Villa's earlier miss in the same position.

Valencia brought on Mista and Riguero but the chance of the game fell to Miguel Angulo, a free-kick deflected off Pablo Ibanez onto the crossbar and down into the path of Angulo who could only shoot straight at Falcon.

The result sees Valencia climb to third and Atlético stay down in 12th position in La Liga.