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Ronaldo hits a hat trick

February 11, 2018
Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring during their Spanish league football match against Real Sociedad at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid Saturday. — AFP
Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring during their Spanish league football match against Real Sociedad at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid Saturday. — AFP

BARCELONA — Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat trick as Real Madrid thrashed Real Sociedad 5-2 in La Liga Saturday to warm up for their Champions League clash with Paris St Germain in style.

Atletico Madrid saw off Malaga 1-0 in a tight game to provisionally close the gap on leader Barcelona to six points.

Real’s big victory over Sociedad took it third above Valencia but it trails Barcelona by 16 points as it turns its attention to the defense of their Champions League title against PSG at the Bernabeu Wednesday.

Zinedine Zidane rested Casemiro and Gareth Bale with one eye on that, but the Welsh winger’s replacement Lucas Vazquez took full advantage when he headed home Ronaldo’s cross after 49 seconds.

Toni Kroos curled home the third from outside the area.

Jon Bautista and Asier Illaramendi netted consolation goals for Real Sociedad.

Alaves continued its good form under Abelardo, winning 2-1 at fifth-place Villarreal to climb to 16th, while Eibar moved sixth thanks to a 1-0 win at Leganes.

Neymar on target

Paris St Germain was made to wait as Neymar struck in the second half to earn a 1-0 win at Toulouse Saturday that extended the Ligue 1 leader’s advantage to 12 points.

The Brazil forward struck in the 68th minute to put PSG on 65 points from 25 games with arch-rival and second-placed AS Monaco on 53 after Stevan Jovetic inspired them to a 4-0 win at Angers.

Olympique de Marseille is third on 52 after a 2-2 draw at St Etienne Friday.

Aguero dazzles

Champion-elect Manchester City looked strangely out of sorts during the first 45 minutes of its Premier League clash with Leicester City.

But after the break it was transformed as Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne put on an attacking masterclass to help the runaway leaders rout the 2016 champions 5-1.

The Argentine scored four second-half goals to take his season’s tally to 21, while De Bruyne pulled the strings at the heart of City’s attacking orchestra, adding three assists in another flawless performance.

The Belgian tore Leicester apart with an unrivalled range of short and long passing and will take some catching in the contest for the Premier League’s player of the year.

Aguero is the fourth player — after Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry and Harry Kane — to score 20-plus goals in four consecutive Premier League campaigns.

De Bruyne, meanwhile, has registered more assists than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues since 2012.

With the pair ably backed by a sensational supporting cast, including Leroy Sane, David Silva, Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, City has scored 20 more goals than the next-best attacking side, Liverpool, and amassed 16 points more than city rival United, in second place.

Hurtling toward the title in a style rarely seen before, Pep Guardiola’s side have been labelled by many the best to grace the Premier League.

City has only 11 more matches to navigate en route to what would be its first championship since 2014 and also remains firmly in the hunt in the Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup.

"Hopefully we can fight for every game in all competitions. We can try and do absolutely everything," Guardiola told the BBC.

Napoli stays top

Napoli stamped its authority on the Serie A title race with a come-from-behind 4-1 thumping of Lazio Saturday to reclaim top spot from champion Juventus.

Juventus’ 2-0 win in Fiorentina had put it top Friday, but Maurizio Sarri’s side responded in style to maintain its one-point advantage over the six-time defending champions. — Agencies


February 11, 2018
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