Ronaldo and Bale strike for Real
04 Mar 2018
MADRID — La Liga champions Real Madrid beat Getafe 3-1 Saturday with a goal from Gareth Bale and two strikes from Cristiano Ronaldo to go 12 points behind leader Barcelona and warm up for next week’s Champions League game at Paris St Germain.
Bale lashed in the opener in the 24th minute from inside the area at a sparsely attended Santiago Bernabeu, while Ronaldo stretched Zinedine Zidane’s side’s advantage in injury time of the first half after a through ball from Karim Benzema, scoring his 300th Liga goal.
The Portuguese moved on to 16 league goals for the season by heading in a cross from Marcelo in the 78th minute to restore Real’s two-goal cushion after Francisco Portillo had pulled back a goal from the penalty spot for Getafe.
Former Chelsea forward Loic Remy was sent off for Getafe two minutes into the second half for a second yellow card after striking Real defender Nacho Fernandez in the face.
Bale overtook David Beckham as the British player with the most appearances in La Liga by playing his 117th game for Real.
Real is third in the Liga standings on 54 points after 27 games. Barcelona, which has 66, hosts second-placed Atletico Madrid in a top-of-the-table clash Sunday.
Roma ends Napoli’s streak
Napoli’s 10-match winning streak in Serie A came to an end Saturday when it slumped to a shock 4-2 home defeat to AS Roma as the leader suffered just its second league loss this season.
The result kept Napoli on top of the table but its lead is now just one point after Juventus earlier defeated Lazio courtesy of an injury-time strike from Paulo Dybala.
Juventus, crucially, also has a game in hand — at home against Atalanta in 10 days’ time.
Argentina striker Dybala marked his comeback after a month on the sidelines by scoring a last-gasp winner in Juve’s 1-0 victory at Lazio in a perfect boost ahead of next week’s Champions League clash at Tottenham.
Lazio, now down in fourth spot in the table, a point back from Roma, had already defeated Juventus twice this season in the Italian Super Cup and Serie A.
Juventus will now travel to London for the second leg of its Champions League last-16 clash after a 2-2 draw in Turin in February.
Salah scores again
as Liverpool goes second
Liverpool moved into second place in the Premier League as Egyptian international Mohamed Salah continued his remarkable scoring run in a 2-0 victory at home to Newcastle United Saturday.
Salah scored for the seventh match running, taking his Liverpool total for the season to 32, when he put the home side ahead after 40 minutes.
Sadio Mane’s goal in the second half ensured there was no joy for Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez, whose Liverpool team won the Champions League in 2005.
Di Maria scores a brace
With star striker Neymar out injured, Angel Di Maria staked his claim to start against Real Madrid next week by scoring two goals as Paris Saint-Germain beat a sloppy Marseille side 3-0 Wednesday to reach the French Cup semifinals.
PSG’s top scorer Edinson Cavani guided in the third after Julian Draxler astutely headed the ball into his path with 10 minutes left.
League leader PSG beat Marseille by the same score Sunday, and just as easily. — Agencies