top-10. "Its a step in the right direction for sure. This is a

MADRID, Spain -- Barcelona stumbled to a 3-2 home loss against Valencia on Saturday, giving Atletico Madrid a chance to move into sole possession of first place in the Spanish league. The Spanish champions decision not to sign a defender during the January transfer window may have backfired after Valencia took advantage of a lethargic, uninspired effort by its hosts at the Camp Nou, where former Spain coach Luis Aragones -- who previously coached the Catalan side -- was honoured after his death on Saturday. Barcelona led through Alexis Sanchezs eighth-minute goal but Dani Parejo equalized for Valencia before the break. Pablo Piatti headed Valencia ahead after the restart before Lionel Messis penalty -- and first league goal since September -- levelled the game again. But Barcelonas defence let Sofiane Feghouli burst free into the area to set up Paco Alcacers 59th-minute winner. Barcelona played with 10 men from the 78th after Jodi Alba was shown a second yellow card. The defeat means Atletico can lead the league alone for the first time this season if it does not lose at home to Real Sociedad on Sunday, when Real Madrid can also overtake its greatest rival with a victory at fourth-place Athletic Bilbao. Also on Saturday, Levante and Rayo Vallecano played to a scoreless draw, as did Getafe and Valladolid, while Malaga rallied to beat Sevilla 3-2 in an entertaining encounter. At the top of the standings, Atletico and Barcelona share 54 points, while Madrid has 53. Valencia provisionally moved into eighth. Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino was preoccupied by Barcelonas drop in play after just half an hour. "Im always worried after every one of our losses," Martino said. "Despite us having played well for a while against Valencia, Im very worried, much like the players are." Messi set up the opener after slashing a pass across the box beyond the far post where Alexis connected oddly to float it over goalkeeper Diego Alves. Valencia took control from the 44th when Parejo exploited a turnover inside the Barcelona half to lead a breakout with Feghouli, who returned a pass inside the area for Parejo to score easily. "Their goal hurt us and, in the second half, the team failed to respond," said defender Javier Mascherano, who refused to blame the off-field distractions that have enveloped Barcelona. "Today it wasnt the distractions that beat us, but Valencia. The margin of error (to be champion) is zero." Valencia went ahead in the 48th when the 1.63-meter (5-foot-3) Piatti held off Dani Alves to jump high and head a looping ball over goalkeeper Victor Valdes. Valencia was unlucky as Pedro Rodriguezs shot came off Ricardo Costa to set up the spot kick, even though it appeared Costa had no chance of getting out of the way as the ball grazed his shoulder. Messi slotted home his ninth league goal in the 54th, and first since Sept. 28 against Almeria. Barcelonas defence was dormant five minutes later as Feghouli moved past three players to the goal line before cutting back to meet Alcacer, who blasted past Valdes for the winner. Messi had a golden opportunity to draw Barcelona even in the second minute of stoppage time, but he shot wide after precisely combining with Dani Alves and substitute Andres Iniesta to get free into the box. Valencia, which was Spains most active team in the January transfer, snapped a five-game winless run to deal Barcelona its first home league defeat in nearly two years. Malaga captain and winger Duda proved the hero at Rosaleda Stadium as he took advantage of Alberto Morenos silly clearance attempt to gather inside the area and lift the winning goal past goalkeeper Beto in the 82nd. Dudas penalty put the hosts ahead after half an hour before Sevilla scored a pair of unanswered goals through Carlos Baccas 10th of the season and Federico Fazios header in the 66th. Samuel Sanchez pegged home the equalizer in the 77th as Malaga rallied for an emotional victory during which coach Bernd Schuster was red-carded in stoppage time. Malaga moved four points clear of Valladolid and the last relegation spot. Nike Air Max Outlet Canada .com) - Pavel Datsyuk and Gustav Nyquist both scored in the shootout as the Detroit Red Wings denied the Minnesota Wilds comeback bid with a 5-4 win on Tuesday. Nike Air Max Clearance Canada . -- Josh Smith made a 3-pointer as time expired and finished with 20 points to lift the Detroit Pistons to a 99-98 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night in both teams exhibition finale. http://www.discountairmaxcanada.com/ . But last years runner-up Jarkko Nieminen crashed out despite winning the first set against Denis Istomin. Istomin fired 10 aces and won 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2 to even his career record against Nieminen at 3-3. Buy Nike Air Max Canada . The Oilers jumped into the free agent market early by signing defencemen Keith Aulie (six-foot-six, 228 pounds) and Mark Fayne (6-3, 210 pounds) and left-winger Benoit Pouliot (6-3, 197-pounds). Two days earlier MacTavish traded lightweight forward Sam Gagner to Tampa Bay for 6-3, 203-pound right winger Ted Purcell. Discount Air Max Shoes Canada . Fans holding laudatory signs started showing up at Yankee Stadium when the gates opened at 4 p.m. Monday, an hour early in order to give them a chance to watch the New York captain take batting practice.BRISTOL, Tenn. - If two rain delays totalling more than five hours werent enough, the water-logged race at Bristol Motor Speedway had a battery fly out of a car and spread a toilet paper-looking substance all over the track. And that wasnt even the strangest occurrence Sunday. Moments before Carl Edwards closed in on what should have been the white flag lap, the caution lights were accidentally turned on from the flag stand. As NASCAR tried to figure out what was going on, the sky opened up and prevented the race from resuming. Edwards was awarded the win under caution — a victory he was headed to before the mishap — and celebrated his third career win at Bristol with his trademark backflip on the slick concrete. "Oh, man, I thought, This is stupid. I shouldnt do this ... Its awfully glossy. It might be slick," he said. "I didnt want to stick it perfectly and have my feet go that way and break my arm on the concrete. That would have been terrible. I was actually really nervous about that." NASCAR vice-president of competition Robin Pemberton said a person in the flag stand leaned on the manual override switch and that turned on the caution lights. Six seconds after the lights were turned on, the flag man waved the yellow flag. Pemberton said that the flag man can wave the caution flag without a call from series officials in the tower if they see a proper reason. "We were scanning cars and spotters, and theres some of us in the tower that only heard it after the teams were talking about it because we were looking at other things around the racetrack," Pemberton said. Said Edwards: "No harm, no foul, lets act like it just didnt happen." The victory makes Edwards the fourth winner in four races this season and, under NASCARs new rules, is supposed to get him into the 16-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. "Just to have a win this early, man, it is a huge relief," he said. Five other things from water-logged Bristol: BUMP-AND-RUN: With Chase berths conceivably on the line with a win, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was salivating at a shot at teammate Edwards when the final caution came out at Bristol. But he knew if the race went green again, his only chance would be the old Bristol bump-and-run, which hasnt been used in years. Its a risky move to do to a teammate, but owner Jack Roush said he expected nothing less from Stenhouse. "When it comes time to really charge for the checkered flag, there are no team orders, there aree no rules," Roush said.dddddddddddd "I expect them to race one another as they expect to be raced, not only with one another, but with everybody in the garage. I expect Ricky is as fierce a competitor as there is out there, and if his car has the speed in it and he can get to the car in front of him, particularly the short track, youd bump-and-run and take the prize if you could. Id be disappointed if he didnt have that in his mind." AWESOME ARIC: Aric Almirola finished a career-best third — and Richard Petty Motorsports teammate Marcos Ambrose was fifth as four Ford drivers placed in the top-five — but Ambrose felt he could have gotten more. He restarted second behind Carl Edwards with 70 laps to go and had one solid chance to take the lead. If hed gotten past Edwards, he just might have grabbed his first career victory. "These races are so hard to win, and it was a great day for us," he said. "Im not disappointed at all with third, but when you see it and you can taste it and its that close, you wonder what could have went different." SMOKE RISES: Tony Stewart salvaged what looked like it was going to be an awful weekend with a season-best fourth-place finish. It came after he qualified 37th, needed two Saturday practice sessions with crew chief Chad Johnston to make significant improvements to the car and needed the entire race to work his way into the top-10. "Its a step in the right direction for sure. This is a big one. If you come out of this place with a top-five youve had a good day," he said. DISSAPOINTED WITH THE FINISH: Kyle Larson flirted with the lead and was in position to race for the win until the race-changing caution with 77 laps remaining. He went to pit road third, took four tires and restarted ninth. So even though he finished a career-best 10th, the rookie wasnt thrilled. "Its crazy to think its kind of a disappointing finish for the way we ran for most of the race, but all in all it was a good race," Larson said. DALES BAD DAY: Dale Earnhardt Jr.s strong start to the season finally came to an end at Bristol, where he finished 24th after opening with a win and two second-places. Although his Chevrolet wasnt great all weekend, his trouble Sunday was compounded by two left-front tire issues. Once he was out of contention, he was basically just making laps for the bulk of the race. It cost Earnhardt the points lead, which went to Brad Keselowski. Earnhardt now trails Keselowski by 10 points. ' ' '