Claudio Ranieri's side had pole position on the basis of having scored more goals, but they have now just a one-point lead on Barcelona, who on Sunday host newly-promoted Numancia, who have never beaten Barca on the previous occasions they have been in the top flight of Spanish football.

Valencia were hit after inspirational left winger Vicente Rodriguez was ruled out for two weeks with a sprained left ankle, an injury sustained in their 2-1 Champions League loss at Werder Bremen midweek.

But after taking the lead after 10 minutes when Italian marksman Marco Di Vaio scored his fifth goal of the season to join Osasuna's Serbian striker Savo Milosevic and Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o on the top of the scorers list, Valencia failed to fire.

A drop in effort saw Brazilian Edu grab the equaliser after 30 minutes following a pass from Valencia reject Ricardo Oliveira.

In Saturday's late match Atletico Madrid, missing a host of first team players, fell 1-0 at Real Sociedad.

The San Sebastian outfit jumped out of the relegation zone to 13th position thanks to a header from Serbian Darko Kovacevic off a shot from Russian Valery Karpin five minutes before the break.

Atletico were unfortunate to have three efforts at goal hit the posts as they dropped one spot to fifth position with their second loss of the season.