Robert Lewandowski scored again as Barcelona defeated Sevilla 3-0 in La Liga on Saturday.
Barcelona rode their luck early on at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan as Marc-Andre ter Stegen denied Ivan Rakitic and Youssef En-Nesyri before the visitors struck against the run of play.
Raphinha headed in the rebound after Lewandowski’s dinked effort was cleared off the line, but the Poland star didn’t need long to get on the scoresheet himself.
Lewandowski controlled a flighted pass from Jules Kounde on his chest and volleyed past Bono for his fifth league goal in four appearances.
Eric Garcia tapped in Barcelona’s third five minutes after half-time after Raphinha’s cross was nodded across goal by Kounde, who was sold by Sevilla for 50 million euros ($49.8 million) this summer.
Barcelona, who host Viktoria Plzen on Wednesday in the opening round of Champions League group games, are two points behind Madrid — 2-1 winners over Betis earlier in the day.
Vinicius Junior struck for the third game running as Madrid took an early lead at the Santiago Bernabeu, but Sergio Canales soon equalised with a goal against his former club.
Rodrygo secured maximum points for Carlo Ancelotti’s side just past the hour with his first goal of the campaign.
“He’s a special forward because he can play in any position. He’s very quick and very intelligent without the ball,” Ancelotti said of Rodrygo, now in his fourth season with Real.
“The apprenticeship is over and now he’s a Real Madrid player in every way.”
Next up for the European champions is a trip to Celtic in the Champions League.
“The team’s going through a good patch right now, the squad has a lot of confidence,” said Ancelotti.
“The most important game of the first part of the season is coming up on Tuesday. We’re going to be taking on a team that’s on a fantastic run and it’s going to be very difficult.”
AFP
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