First-half hat-trick for Lewandowski as Barcelona remain top of LaLiga
Robert Lewandowski continued his impressive start to the season, scoring a hat-trick in the space of 25 minutes as Barcelona defeated Alaves 3-0 to achieve international breakthrough in the Spanish league.
Lewandowski scored in the seventh, 22nd and 32nd minutes on Sunday to take his league tally to ten goals in nine games. He has scored a total of twelve goals in eleven games in all competitions, scoring eight times in his last five games.
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The Polish striker got out of trouble in Barcelona’s 5-0 defeat to Young Boys in the Champions League on Tuesday.
“We played a very good match from the first minute,” Lewandowski said.
“If you score three goals in the first half, you have much more control in the second half.”
The win moved Barcelona three points back on second-place Real Madrid ahead of the international break. Madrid even drew level on points against the Catalan club on Saturday with a 2-0 win over fourth-placed Villarreal.
Barcelona came from its first league defeat of the season with a 4-2 loss to Osasuna. It had previously won its first seven games in the competition.
Lewandowski scored with strikes from close range after a pair of assists from Raphinha and another from Eric Garcia.
It was the third defeat in a row for Alaves, which had no goal attempts in the first half.
Barcelona lost forward Ferran Torres with an apparent muscle injury five minutes into the match.
Atletico Madrid to third place
Atletico Madrid moved up to third place with a 1-1 draw at Real Sociedad.
Julin Alvarez scored from the penalty area after a pass from Antoine Griezmann one minute into the match. Sociedad equalized in the 84th with a left-footed curler into the top corner from Luka Sucic.
The result brought Atletico level with Villarreal. Diego Simeone’s team is ahead on goal difference.
Atletico had suffered a 4-0 defeat to Benfica in the Champions League, their biggest defeat in the competition.
Sociedad, winless in two games, was in 15th place.
Sevilla wins derby
Dodi Lukebakio converted a 50th-minute penalty to give Sevilla a 1-0 win over Real Betis in the Seville derby.
It was the second defeat in a row for Betis. Sevilla have won two of their last three matches
Gazzaniga saves penalties
Girona ended a six-match winless streak in all competitions with a 2–1 win at home to Athletic Bilbao, with Cristhian Stuani scoring the winner by converting a penalty nine minutes into stoppage time in the second half.
Before that, the match featured three penalty saves by Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga, one in the first half and two in the second, after a video review required the final penalty to be retaken.
It was Athletic’s first defeat in six games in all competitions.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First publication: Oct 07, 2024 | 10:19 am IST