MADRID: Barcelona’s season continued to unravel as the world, European and Spanish champions fell 2-1 at home to struggling Valencia in La Liga and thus opened the title race door to both Atletico and Real Madrid.

Luis Enrique’s men have won only once in their lst games in all competitions, a four-week spell in which they were also knocked off their Champions League throne in midweek by Atletico in the quarter-finals.

Lionel Messi scored his 500th career goal in front of a disbelieving Camp Nou but that was no more than a consolation goal after Valencia, who sacked Englishman Gary Neville as coach only last month, snatched first-half command with a 26th-minute own goal from Ivan Rakitic and 45th-minute follow-up from Santi Mina.

Earlier in the evening Atletico had pulled level on points with a comfortable 3-0 home win Granada.

Koke scored the opening goal from 12m after a shot from Fernando Torres was blocked. Ex-Blackburn forward Ruben Rochina hit the post for Granada before half-time but Torres then ran on to Koke’s pass to double Atletico’s lead.

Substitute Angel Correa sprinted on to Saul’s flick to slot in a late third for Diego Simeone’s side.

Five-goal Real

Real Madrid are one point behind the top two after thrashing Getafe 5-1 on Saturday on goals from forwards Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale and midfield pair Isco and James Rodriguez.

Benzema put a superior Madrid in charge just before the half hour make and then provided the pass for Isco to consolidate the advantage before half-time.

Bale netted a milestone 16th league goal of the season five minutes after the break, surpassing his previous best goals tally in the league from 2013-14, and James and Ronaldo further punished Getafe in the final minutes after Pablo Sarabia had pulled one back for the hosts.

Getafe thus sank to the bottom of the table after the first game in charge for new coach Juan Esnaider, who replaced sacked Fran Escriba last week.

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