Diego Forlan grabbed a brace as Atletico Madrid swept aside nine-man Valencia 4-1 in an entertaining Primera Division encounter at the Vicente Calderon.

David Silva opened the scoring for the visitors after 21 minutes but the game turned on a contentious incident nine minutes later which saw Forlan draw Atletico level from the penalty spot. Valencia lost captain Carlos Marchena to a red card in that incident, but they still managed to keep Atletico out for nearly 50 minutes, thanks largely to some brilliant goalkeeping from Cesar Sanchez.

Cesar was finally beaten by Sergio Aguero's 79th-minute header and soon after that Valencia suffered another blow when they had full-back Miguel sent off. Forlan's second and Jose Manuel Jurado's injury-time strike completed the rout.