Barcelona’s La Liga juggernaut rolled into Seville on Saturday and left with the scoreboard smoking, as the leaders beat Real Betis 5-2 to make it nine wins from nine, stretching their blistering league goal tally to 39.
Lamine Yamal lit the fuse with a dazzling opener before Rodri, Gabriel Jesus, Eric García and the substitute Dani Olmo joined the party, while Valentín Gómez and Ez Abde replied for Betis, who played much of the second half with 10 men after Facundo Bernal was sent off for head-butting Lamine Yamal.
Lamine Yamal opened the scoring in the 10th minute in familiar style, gliding in from the right before whipping a left-footed strike from the edge of the box into the top corner. Betis levelled in the 27th when Pablo Fornals collected a rebound on the right and clipped a cross into the middle for Gómez, who rose highest to head past goalkeeper Joan García.
Barcelona reclaimed the lead on 41 minutes when the Spain captain Rodri powered in a header from Fermín López’s corner. Betis thought they had equalised three minutes later through Gio Lo Celso’s spectacular swivelling volley from outside the box, but the effort was ruled out after Cucho Hernández was adjudged to have handled.
Jesus had a goal disallowed for offside shortly after the break but was not kept waiting long. In the 51st, Lamine Yamal darted down the right and squared for the Brazilian to finish neatly.
A minute later Abde pulled one back on the counter, sliding a low shot inside the right post, but Betis’ celebrations turned sour when Bernal was shown a straight red card following a scuffle. Lamine Yamal was booked for his part in the altercation.
Barcelona made it 4-2 in the 63rd minute when Álvaro Valles failed to deal with Lamine Yamal’s free-kick and Pau Cubarsi headed the loose ball back across goal for García to tap in.
Álex Baena struck in the 89th minute to snatch a 1-0 win for Atlético Madrid at Espanyol. Baena smashed in from the edge of the box to claim the Red and white victory from a tight game in Cornella. Atlético have won six consecutive games across all competitions and remain five points behind Barcelona. Valencia and Athletic Bilbao drew 0-0.
On Sunday fourth-placed Real Madrid, nine points behind Barça with a game in hand, host Sevilla. In the buildup to that game, the Real Madrid coach, José Mourinho, said on Saturday that if he were Vinícius Junior he would have left the club this summer. The Brazilian was sent off during Madrid’s win over Villarreal last weekend for hair pulling and was banned for four matches, meaning he will miss the classic against Barcelona on 25 October.
Vinícius, who signed a new contract tying him to Real Madrid until 2032, has also been targeted regularly by opposition fans and been racially abused on many occasions since joining Madrid in 2018.
“He’s a spectacular kid who it’s easy to have a good relationship with,” Mourinho said. “He’s a fantastic boy, tremendous credit to him for the fact that he keeps living and surviving and still having a smile … If it were me in his place, probably I wouldn’t be here. In this last summer I would have forced an exit to a league, a country, to somewhere there are rival clubs and stadiums that respect him.”
Mourinho took Vinícius off during the 4-3 Champions League win at Roma on Wednesday, with the winger still struggling to find the form that helped him win the competition twice under Carlo Ancelotti. Mourinho said he was happy that Vinícius’s ban was four matches, saying he thought some hidden figures at the Spanish football federation’s disciplinary committee “would give him one or two more”.
In Germany, Luis Díaz scored a hat-trick as Bayern Munich pummelled a listless RB Leipzig 6-1 at home to climb to the top of the Bundesliga table. Borussia Dortmund had edged ahead of Freiburg into top spot after their earlier goalless draw at Union Berlin, but Bayern responded in typically ruthless fashion.
The dominant display was Bayern’s best performance of the season and will boost their confidence before Wednesday’s home Champions League clash with English champions Arsenal.
Díaz had faced criticism after four league games without a goal but the Colombian sparked to life to terrorise the Leipzig defender Lukas Klostermann down the left. In his 100th Bundesliga match, Harry Kane scored a goal and laid on two assists as he pulled the strings from deep while Aleksandar Pavlovic and Michael Olise also got on the scoresheet. Bayern have now won their past three games against Leipzig by a combined scoreline of 17-1.
In Italy, Inter pulled clear at the top of Serie A by coming from behind to beat Bologna 3-1. The champions were criticised after a 4-3 Champions League defeat against Club Brugge in midweek, but bounced back to move three points clear of second-placed Lazio, who face Juventus in Turin on Sunday.
Bologna started brightly at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara as Tommaso Pobega fired them in front after 10 minutes before hitting the bar with a powerful shot. But Inter, shorn of their injured top scorer and captain, Lautaro Martínez, after he was ruled out for a month, responded through a towering Marcus Thuram header and would have gone in at the break in front were it not for a superb Lukasz Skorupski save from Francesco Pio Esposito. Carlos Augusto scored within a minute of coming on midway through the second half, before turning provider for his fellow replacement Ange-Yoan Bonny late on.
Roma dispatched Genoa 2-0 to move into second. With their top-scorer, Donyell Malen, suspended and several key players injured, Roma’s youngsters seized their chance as Santiago Castro and Emanuele Lulli scored their first goals for the club. Genoa’s coach, Daniele De Rossi, a celebrated former Roma player and coach, received a warm ovation from the home support but was unable to prevent his counterpart, Gian Piero Gasperini, from claiming the 300th Serie A win of his managerial career.
Napoli’s torrid start to the season continued when Venezia’s head coach, Davide Nicola, masterminded a shock 1-0 win in his first game as Kevin De Bruyne had a penalty saved. Nicola was appointed during the week to replace Giovanni Stroppa after last season’s Serie B champions failed to pick up a single point in their opening six games. He made an instant impact as Akor Adams struck the winner early in the second half to seal Venezia’s first Serie A win over Napoli since 1942.
In France, Ousmane Dembélé missed a penalty but later scored as Paris Saint-Germain produced a fightback to win 3-1 at Strasbourg and go top of the Ligue 1 table.
PSG were trailing to an early goal by Giovanni Reyna at the Stade de la Meinau, and last year’s Ballon d’Or winner then put a penalty wide in the 72nd minute. But Dembélé made amends in style, first by setting up Illia Zabarnyi to equalise in the 78th minute and then by putting the reigning French and European champions ahead with five minutes to go.
He then played a part in setting up Désiré Doué for PSG’s third in stoppage time, as Luis Enrique’s men made it four straight Ligue 1 wins, and six on the bounce including the Champions League.
After failing to win any of their first three domestic league matches this season, PSG are up to 14 points from seven games and are therefore top of the standings on goals scored from Monaco, before the principality club visit Lorient on Sunday. Lille, Rennes, Paris FC and Lyon all have the opportunity to go back above PSG in the table over the weekend.
Source: www.theguardian.com
