Lionel Messi’s 15th La Liga hat-trick lit up a nerve-jangling nine-goal thriller as Barcelona survived Javier Mascherano’s red card to win 5-4 at Deportivo de La Coruna to go three points clear at the top on Saturday.
Messi’s latest masterclass overshadowed Real Madrid’s drab 2-0 triumph at home to promoted RC Celta Vigo. Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo (penalty) scored the goals that lifted Jose Mourinho’s team to fourth place, eight points behind archrivals Barca.
World Player of the Year Messi, who is expecting the imminent birth of his first child, has notched 71 goals for club and country this year. That leaves him only four short of the record set by Brazilian great Pele in 1959.
Photo: AFP
The Argentine has 11 goals in eight La Liga outings this season, two more than Ronaldo. Unbeaten Barca have 22 points, three ahead of Atletico Madrid who were set to play Real Sociedad yesterday.
“He [Messi] is off to the hospital now for a happy occasion as his son is on the way,” Barca sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta told Spanish television.
Malaga are third on 17 points after Joaquin made amends for fluffing a penalty by grabbing the winner in a 2-1 victory at home to Real Valladolid.
On a day full of late drama, Valencia got their stuttering season back on track when they snatched a 3-2 win over struggling Athletic Bilbao who were leading 2-1 when they had Ander Herrera sent off midway through the second half.
Barca looked to be cruising to a seventh win of the campaign when they raced into a three-goal lead after 18 minutes at Depor’s Riazor stadium.
Jordi Alba sped on to a Cesc Fabregas pass to score in the third minute, Cristian Tello added a second and then Messi smashed in his first of the night after Fabregas’s clever backheel.
The home side pulled two goals back against the run of play through Pizzi (penalty) and Alex Bergantinos before Messi made the most of another Fabregas assist to make it 4-2 at the break.
In a frenetic start to the second half Depor midfielder Pizzi curled in a stunning 47th-minute free kick and Mascherano was harshly shown a second yellow card two minutes later.
Barca manager Tito Vilanova reacted by replacing Fabregas with Xavi before Messi, who also struck a free-kick against the post, appeared to have killed the game when he made it 5-3 with a trademark run and clinical finish in the 77th minute.
A bizarre own goal from Barca fullback Jordi Alba, when he lobbed ‘keeper Victor Valdes from inside his own penalty area, gave Depor fresh hope, but they were unable to make some late pressure count.
Real, who are clawing their way up the table after a poor start to the defense of their title, took an 11th-minute lead at the Bernabeu thanks to a Higuain cross-shot from the left that looped over Celta goalkeeper Sergio and into the net.
The home team struggled to break through Celta’s well-drilled defense and needed a 67th-minute Ronaldo penalty, awarded for a foul on Mesut Ozil, to double the lead.
The visitors came close to scoring late on, but Real ‘keeper Iker Casillas produced a fine save to keep out South Korea striker Park Chu-young’s header.
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