Soccer: Villa left frustrated as Valencia fail to win

David Villa's incredible season continued for Valencia on Sunday but his 10th goal in 12 league games earned his team only a point after defender Saltor Bruno gifted Mallorca a late equaliser.

Villa, who admitted this week that he had "not closed any doors on a move away from Spain" put Valencia ahead on 47 minutes.

The Spain centre-forward has until now favoured staying in La Liga but last summer he saw moves to Real Madrid and Barcelona collapse and now says: "It's a short career and I have to make the most of it".

Having seen Real Madrid buy Karim Benzema and Barcelona purchase Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Villa knows a move to either club next summer is unlikely.

If his ambitions are to extend beyond Valencia he may have to look beyond Spain and once again his cool head in front of goal was let down by others all around him losing theirs.

Villa's goal should have been one of many as Valencia laid siege to Mallorca's goal at the Mestalla but the difference stayed at one, and with five minutes left Bruno headed up in the air instead of out of his own six-yard box and then inexplicably gave away a penalty leaning all over Gonzalo Castro.

Borja Valero scored the spot kick and Valencia's misery was compounded when another Premier League target, David Silva, went home on crutches with an injury to his left knee that will keep him out for the rest of the year.

It was the chasing pack's big chance to close the gap on at least one of the big two but like Valencia, Seville dropped points at home.

They finished their 2-2 draw with Malaga with five forwards on the pitch but they could not come back to win after trailing 2-0 at halftime.

Malaga have lost only one of their last eight games in the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium and they went ahead through Fernandez Fernando and Sergio Duda punishing Seville for glaring misses from Alvaro Negredo and Luis Fabiano.

"El Fabuloso" Fabiano made amends in the second half scoring twice but Malaga held on.

In Italy, leaders Internazionale left it late in seeing off Fiorentina at San Siro, Diego Milito's penalty five minutes from time securing a 1-0 victory.

Inter thought they had gone ahead early in the second half when Walter Samuel's header was controversially ruled out for shirt tugging. Alberto Gilardino hit the post in Fiorentina's only real chance and Inter striker Samuel Eto'o continued his erratic form by wasting a good chance to seal victory.

"I have just one duty - to be honest. I don't need to win anything, not the championship, not the Champions League," Inter coach Jose Mourinho said when asked if his side must now focus more on the Champions League rather than Serie A.

Attempting to stay on Inter's heels, Juventus slipped up losing 2-0 at Cagliari despite dominating for long periods.

- INDEPENDENT