Barcelona’s Gerard (left) in a tussle with Real Zaragoza’s Villa during their Spanish League match at Nou Camp on Sunday. (AFP)

Madrid: Deportivo missed a good chance to make up ground on new league leaders Valencia and second-placed Real Madrid when they were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Racing Santander on Sunday.

Depor, the only team apart from the top two in with a realistic chance of taking the title, went ahead just before halftime with a cracking Albert Luque free-kick.

Javier Irureta’s side had plenty of chances to add to their lead but Javi Guerrero provided Racing with a spectacular equaliser in the 77th minute.

A draw left Deportivo in third place on 37 points at the halfway stage in the season, six points behind Valencia and five behind Real Madrid.

Valencia dislodged Real at the top of the table, and took the honorary title of winter champions into the bargain, when they beat Albacete 1-0 on Saturday and Real went down 0-1 at Real Sociedad.

Atletico Madrid climbed up to fourth place on Sunday with 31 points with a 3-0 win at home to Athletic Bilbao, featuring two goals from Fernando Torres.

Villarreal are fifth, a point further back, after a 3-1 win at home to Valladolid, while Barcelona moved up to seventh on 27 points with a morale-boosting 3-0 win — their second in eight matches — over Real Zaragoza at the Nou Camp.

Barcelona’s win is certain to ease the pressure on coach Frank Rijkaard. Saviola opened the scoring in the 24th minute when he nodded the ball home after beating Zaragoza goalkeeper Cesar Lainez to a cross from the left by Andres Iniesta.

Ronaldinho doubled the lead just before halftime with a penalty, awarded after Zaragoza defender Carlos Cuartero tripped Luis Garcia. Barcelona’s third goal came in the 66th minute when Xavi slid the ball into an empty net after Lainez had missed Iniesta’s deflected cross.

In Serie A, Brazilian Kaka scored twice as AC Milan beat Reggina 3-1 at the San Siro on Sunday but AS Roma remain three points clear at the top of table after a goal from their Brazilian Mancini gave them a 1-0 win at Perugia.

European champions Milan, who have a game in hand on their title rivals, are level on 36 points with second-place Juventus, who beat Sampdoria 2-1 in Genoa thanks to a Mauro Camoranesi header and an Antonio Conte strike.

Lazio suffered another setback with a 0-1 home defeat to Brescia — former Italy international Luigi Di Biagio scoring the winner.

Milan suffered an early shock when Reggina defender Stefano Torrisi put the visitors ahead in the first minute, but Kaka put Milan on level terms just seven minutes later with a superbly-taken individual goal.

The midfielder’s second, which put Milan in front in the 55th minute, was a more fortunate effort — an attempted clearance from Reggina defender Andrea Sottil hitting Kaka and flying past goalkeeper Emanuele Belardi.

Kaka had a major hand in Milan’s third when he was brought down by Martin Jiranek and Andrea Pirlo converted the penalty.

The home side drew level through a Francesco Flachi header from a Sergio Volpi cross 11 minutes into the second half. But Juve secured an important win in the 64th minute when Conte blasted home after a delightful back-heeled set-up from Nedved.