Spanish La Liga: Valencia up to fourth after 2-1 win at Espanyol

Valencia moved up to fourth in the Primera Division table after battling to a 2-1 win at Espanyol.

Pablo Piatti marked his return from injury by putting the visitors ahead in the second half and Valencia doubled their lead when Dani Parejo's free-kick bounced off the face of hapless goalkeeper Pau Lopez.

Sergio Garcia pulled one back for the hosts in the 89th minute but Valencia held on to claim just a fourth away victory of the season, taking them two points clear of Sevilla.

Nuno Espirito Santo made four changes, bringing in Lucas Orban and Antonio Barragan for the suspended Nicolas Otamendi and Joao Cancelo, as well as replacing Andre Gomes and Alvaro Negredo with Piatti and Paco Alcacer.

But his counterpart Sergio Gonzalez made double the amount of changes from the team that lost 3-2 at Sevilla, only keeping faith with Jose Canas, Victor Sanchez and Hector Moreno, and handing league debuts to 20-year-old goalkeeper Lopez and 19-year-old left-back Ruben Duarte.

The teams were evenly matched in the first half.

Valencia came close when Rodrigo struck the outside of the near post and Piatti blasted the rebound over the bar, although at the other end Felipe Caicedo squandered an even better chance, failing to get enough power on his shot to beat Diego Alves after bulldozing his way into the area.

The second half witnessed far more goalmouth action, and the deadlock was broken just after the hour mark.

Rodrigo spread the play to Jose Luis Gaya on the left and Piatti arrived ahead of Lopez to poke the ball in at the near post.

Gonzalez responded to going down by bringing on top scorer Christian Stuani, who should have grabbed an equaliser.

A fine ball by Lucas Vazquez allowed Garcia to square the ball to the Uruguayan just a few yards from goal, but Gaya got back to clear the forward's shot off the line.

The 28-year-old had another shot at goal when the resulting corner bounced into his path, but this time Mustafi got in his way.

Parejo then sealed the points for the visitors with a well-struck free-kick which hit the near post and bounced off the face of Lopez and into the net.

The midfielder then played a poorly-judged backpass to Mustafi which Garcia intercepted and slammed home to add excitement to the four minutes of stoppage time, but Valencia held on.