Kylian Mbappe continued his rich vein of form with a hat-trick on Saturday to power Real Madrid to a 3-0 win over Real Valladolid and a four-point lead at the top of Spanish La Liga.
Second-place Atletico Madrid drew 1-1 at home earlier against Villarreal.
Mbappe has hit his devastating best in recent weeks after struggling for consistency following his summer switch from Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
Photo: AFP
The French superstar climbed to 15 league goals for the season, trailing only Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski, on 16.
Mbappe’s first Madrid treble helped his team, playing without suspended Brazil international Vinicius Junior, ease to a simple away victory against bottom side Valladolid.
“I’m happy with the hat-trick, but more happy with the win, I feel like I say that every week but it’s the truth,” Mbappe told Real Madrid TV.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“It was very important to win today after Atletico’s result... So we’re happy and go back to Madrid with the victory,” he said.
“Mbappe is bringing a lot to the team, he’s found form in the last couple of months and obviously for us that’s a plus, he’s a player with a lot of quality,” Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti told reporters.
Atletico Madrid dropped two more points in the title race in a hard-fought draw with Villarreal.
Photo: AFP
Samuel Lino’s strike after 58 minutes pulled Diego Simeone’s side level after Villarreal took the lead through a Gerard Moreno first-half penalty at the Metropolitano.
Simeone began with key players Antoine Griezmann and Rodrigo de Paul on the bench, rotating his side after their draining UEFA Champions League comeback win against Bayer Leverkusen in midweek.
“We found the draw, we took the game to a place where we could have won it, but it wasn’t possible,” Simeone said. “We will continue on our path, going game by game.”
BUNDESLIGA
AFP, FREIBURG IM BREISGAU, Germany
Harry Kane scored as Bayern Munich won 2-1 at SC Freiburg on Saturday to move six points clear of Bayer Leverkusen, who threw away a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at RB Leipzig.
Kane and English compatriot Eric Dier created the opener in the 15th minute.
Dier found Kane who drilled a low shot through the fingers of Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu. The goal was Kane’s first from open play since mid-November and his 17th in 17 league games this season.
Bayern doubled their lead after 54 minutes when Kim Min-jae outmuscled Atubolu and headed in a Joshua Kimmich corner. Freiburg made Bayern sweat when Matthias Ginter headed in a corner with 22 minutes remaining, but the German giants held firm to bounce back from Wednesday’s surprise 3-0 Champions League loss at Feyenoord.
In their first match since sacking coach Nuri Sahin, 10-man Borussia Dortmund also let a two-goal lead slip to draw 2-2 at home against Werder Bremen.
SERIE A
Reuters
Juventus manager Thiago Motta was disappointed with his side’s first Italian Serie A loss of the season at leaders SSC Napoli on Saturday and pointed to the amount of preparation time the hosts have for matches as they are not playing in Europe this term.
Antonio Conte’s Napoli staged a second-half comeback to win 2-1 at home thanks to goals from Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa and Romelu Lukaku and lead the table with 53 points, six above Inter who have two games in hand. Juve are fifth on 37 points.
“I’m disappointed with the defeat. We had a good first half, causing our opponents a lot of problems, a side that is not top of the table as a fluke, because they have a great coach and had the opportunity to prepare all week for this,” Motta told DAZN. “However, we did not have that luxury, and it showed, because all the good work we did in the first half, we struggled to replicate in the second and that is why we were unable to win.”
LIGUE 1
Reuters, PARIS
PSG had to settle for a 1-1 draw at home to mid-table Stade de Reims on Saturday after Ousmane Dembele’s second-half strike was canceled out by Keito Nakamura’s, although they stretched their lead at the top of French Ligue 1 to 10 points.
“It was a complicated game. Reims are a good team,” new PSG signing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia said. “We could have won, we had a lot of chances, but we have to keep working and the results will follow.”
“It wasn’t easy. We deserved the draw,” he said.
PSG next visit VfB Stuttgart in their final first phase game of the Champions League as they look to secure a playoff spot.
“Now we have to focus on Wednesday’s game because we’re playing every three days. We need to recover well,” defender Lucas Hernandez said.
The New Taipei Kings claimed the inaugural Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) championship on Sunday, defeating the Kaohsiung FamilyMart Aquas 108-89 in the final. Playing at home, the Kings pulled ahead with Jeremy Lin’s (林書豪) clutch three-pointers, securing their victory over the Aquas in the TPBL final. The Kings came out strong in the first quarter, dominating to build a 35-18 lead. By halftime, they had stretched their advantage to 61-38. In the third quarter, the Aquas narrowed the deficit to 12 points, but Lin stepped up, sinking several tough three- pointers to extend the lead. In the final quarter, the Kings pushed the
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