REAL MADRID — Real Madrid brushed off the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale to beat Espanyol 2-0 away and maintain its 100 percent start to the league season while matching the La Liga record of 16 consecutive victories.
James Rodriguez scored his first Real goal in five months to give the visitors the lead in stoppage time before the break and Karim Benzema sealed the points in the 70th minute with a close-range finish past former Madrid goalkeeper Diego Lopez.
Athletic Bilbao beat Valencia 2-1 to pile more pressure on the visitors’ beleaguered coach Pako Ayesteran, Villarreal downed Real Sociedad 2-1 thanks to a sensational 50-yard strike from Nicola Sansone, while Celta Vigo drew 0-0 at Osasuna.
Real stays top of La Liga on 12 points, three above Barcelona and Las Palmas, having equalled Barca’s record of 16 straight league wins achieved under Pep Guardiola in the 2010-11 season.
“We played a great game from the start with concentration and enthusiasm. The best way to get the points is to come out fired up like we did today,” Zidane told Movistar Plus.
The Frenchman’s Real side also broke the Madrid club’s record for consecutive league wins, overtaking the 15-game winning streak under Miguel Munoz in the 1960-61 season.
Ronaldo missed the trip to Espanyol with a sore throat, while Bale is recovering from a hip injury sustained in Wednesday’s last-gasp 2-1 Champions League win over Sporting Lisbon.
Juve loses at Inter
Inter Milan substitute Ivan Perisic secured a 2-1 win against champion Juventus as the host recorded its first Serie A victory over its archrival in eight games after fighting back from a goal down at the San Siro Sunday.
Third-placed Roma missed the chance to overtake Juventus in the table as it lost 1-0 at Fiorentina, sunk by Milan Badelj’s 81st minute strike.
Genoa and Udinese squandered the chance to move level on points with Juventus after defeats by Sassuolo and Chievo Verona respectively.
Stephan Lichsteiner had knocked in Alex Sandro’s low cross to give Juve the lead in the 66th minute in a typically tense encounter but Inter captain Mauro Icardi leveled two minutes later by heading home from a corner.
Icardi then provided a stylish cross with the outside of his boot for Perisic to score in the 78th, nine minutes after the Croatia international had come off the bench.
Juve stays second on nine points, one behind leader Napoli which beat Bologna 3-1 Saturday, while Inter moves up to sixth on seven points.
Sassuolo beat Genoa 2-0 at home while Udinese threw away the lead as it lost 2-1 at home to Chievo after conceding a goal in the fifth minute of added time.
England international Joe Hart kept a clean sheet in his home bow for Torino, which drew 0-0 with Empoli, while Cagliari beat Atlanta 3-0 and Crotone picked up its first ever Serie A point by drawing 1-1 at home to Palermo.
Hertha beats Schalke
In Berlin, Hertha Berlin continued its winning start to the Bundesliga with a deserved 2-0 victory over visiting Schalke Sunday, while Mainz claimed its first win of the season, a 3-1 win over Augsburg. — Agencies
