Real Madrid kept pace with Barcelona at the top of the Spanish league table with Brazilian playmaker Kaka pulling the strings in a 3-0 win at Espanyol on Saturday.
Kaka has yet to open his Real account since joining from AC Milan, but showed a touch of class to set up Esteban Granero for his first Real goal and create the second for stand-in captain Guti.
Substitute Cristiano Ronaldo, the world’s most expensive player, added a third in the final minute for his second goal in as many games.
PHOTO: AFP
It was Espanyol’s first competitive game at their new Cornella-El Prat Stadium and Real had some worrying moments before their class shone through to make it a maximum six points.
Granero struck the 40th-minute opener after a clever one-two with Kaka.
Kaka then turned the defense inside out and provided a pinpoint pass for Guti to ram home on 77 minutes, before Ronaldo netted in the closing stages.
Events at Espanyol began with a minute’s silence to mark the death of captain Dani Jarque, who died of a heart attack at the age of 26 at a pre-season training camp.
Real ought to have gone ahead on six minutes, but Christoph Metzelder managed to put the ball over from under the goal in an early miss of the season contender.
At the other end, Iker Casillas had to parry a Moises Hurtado toe-poke to prevent Espanyol from taking the lead.
Casillas was celebrating a decade between the Real posts after making his debut for Real on Sept. 12, 1999, at Athletic Bilbao. Espanyol were threatening, but Real carved out two golden chances in a minute and converted one of them.
Granero played a one-two with Kaka before curling the ball into the left corner past Carlos Kameni.
It was harsh on the Cameroon goalkeeper who had pulled off a brilliant save 60 seconds earlier to thwart Marcelo.
Espanyol probed before Kaka undid them with a swift turn and Guti accepted his pass to kill off the game.
The victory means there is the familiar top two of Barcelona and Real at the summit after Barcelona won 2-0 at Getafe on Saturday. Barcelona are top on goal difference.
Barca’s record signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic made it two goals in two games following up his debut strike with a vital opener on 65th minutes, before substitute Lionel Messi grabbed a second.
The goals are a real boost for Ibrahimovic as he bids to justify his 69 million euros transfer fee and the Swede can now look forward to facing old club Inter in Wednesday’s Champions League match at the San Siro.
Barcelona found it tough going against Getafe, who rattled the woodwork twice, and coach Pep Guardiola paid tribute to the returning Messi and Andres Iniesta, back from injury after three months out, who came on as second-half substitutes to change the game.
“We can’t deny that they [Iniesta and Messi] are too very good players,” Guardiola said.
Sevilla, third last season, notched their first win of the season in style, thumping Real Zaragoza 4-1. Brazilian Luis Fabiano scored a brace, with Diego Perotti and Abdoulay Konko also on the score sheet.
Atletico Madrid are still searching for their first win of the season after a disappointing 1-1 home draw against 10-man Racing Santander.
Atletico fans staged protests at the club’s lack of transfer activity.
Jose Jurado put Atletico ahead on 43 minutes, but Oscar Serrano equalized in first-half injury-time.
Racing had defender Jose Crespo sent off shortly after the interval, but Atletico could not capitalize.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but