Valencia put aside their league worries to win the Copa del Rey on Wednesday night after easing past battling Getafe, who suffered final heartbreak for the second successive season.
Ronald Koeman's side, who are just five points above the Primera Liga drop zone, clinched their seventh Copa del Rey crown thanks to early goals from Juan Manuel Mata and Alexis, plus a late strike from substitute Fernando Morientes.
Getafe had managed to pull the score back to 2-1 thanks to Esteban Granero's 45th-minute penalty, but it was to be more misery for Michael Laudrup's side, who last week were knocked out of the UEFA Cup quarter-finals by Bayern Munich.
The club from the outskirts of Madrid, who lost to Sevilla in last year's final, also finished the game with 10 men following the late dismissal of Fabio Celestini.
Valencia may have struggled in the league but their cup form has made for much happier reading, with six of the 10 victories earned during Koeman's tenure coming in this competition.
And Los Che again proved their liking for the cup with a barnstorming start that saw them score twice in the opening 11 minutes.
Both goals were headers and stemmed from David Silva crosses, with Mata breaking the deadlock in the fourth minute after glancing home from eight yards out.
If Getafe coach Laudrup was disappointed with his side's marking for that goal, he would have been furious seven minutes later when Alexis, the former Getafe centre-back, stole in virtually unmarked to head home Silva's right-wing corner from close range to make it 2-0.
Getafe had barely featured as an attacking force by that stage, but they gradually battled their way back into the match and Granero went close with a 22nd-minute header that flew just wide.
Despite Getafe's best intentions, Valencia still looked set to see the game through to half-time in relative comfort.
However, there was to be a twist as Getafe were awarded a controversial penalty on the stroke of half-time.
Cosmin Contra went down under a challenge by Emiliano Moretti and although the referee initially ignored Getafe's calls for a penalty, he changed his mind after consulting his assistant.
The Valencia players surrounded the assistant in protest but the decision stood and Granero rifled the resulting spot-kick home via the inside of Timo Hildebrand's right-hand post.
That goal breathed fresh life into a final that had looked in danger of petering out, and the second half proved a much more exciting affair than the first.
David Villa had two early chances for Valencia, drilling one wide after getting in behind the Getafe defence, before then bringing a superb save out of Oscar Ustari after cleverly turning his marker.
At the other end Granero came within inches of levelling the scores in the 61st minute when he lashed a 25-yard effort that flew past Hildebrand before thudding against the crossbar and going over.
Ruben De la Red then brought a save out of Hildebrand, who grabbed the ball at the second attempt, before the German custodian did superbly to palm away Braulio's 80th-minute header as Getafe desperately pushed for an equaliser.
Laudrup's men could find no way through though, and their hopes of getting anything out of the match ended in the 84th minute when Ustari failed to hold a shot and Morientes dived in to head home Valencia's third goal.
