Real Madrid again made light of the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo as they crushed RC Deportivo de La Coruna 6-2 to maintain the upper hand in the La Liga title race on Wednesday.
Madrid and Barcelona are locked on 78 points at the top of the table, but Real have a game in hand over their title rivals.
Barca remain top thanks to their better head-to-head record after Lionel Messi struck twice to relegate CA Osasuna in a 7-1 thrashing.
Photo: AFP
Osasuna’s relegation was confirmed after CD Leganes beat UD Las Palmas 3-0 to move six points clear of the drop zone, while Real Sociedad boosted their chances of qualifying for the Europa League with a 3-2 win against Valencia.
Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane made nine changes from the side who lost 3-2 to Barca on Sunday to reignite the title race.
Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and the injured Gareth Bale were left out of the Madrid squad for a third straight away league game, but again their absence was not missed.
“It is the hardest job for a coach. When they play like they did today and then maybe they won’t play in the next game,” Zidane said. “We know I have a phenomenal group of players and all of them are ready for the challenge between now and the end of the season.”
Alvaro Morata smashed home at the near post to give the visitors the perfect start after less than a minute.
James Rodriguez then added a second from Lucas Vazquez’s cross as Madrid threatened to run riot inside the first 20 minutes.
However, the European champions have now kept just one clean sheet in their past 15 games and their defense was breached once more when Florin Andone turned home Gael Kakuta’s mishit shot 10 minutes before halftime.
Vazquez restored Real’s two-goal lead before halftime and Zidane’s men could even have reached double figures in a dominant second period.
Morata unselfishly teed up Rodriguez for his second of the night before Isco sealed a stunning individual display by smashing home 13 minutes from time.
Joselu got another goal back for Deportivo with a fine looping header, but fittingly Real had the final say when Casemiro’s piledriver slipped under Deportivo goalkeeper Przemyslaw Tyton.
Dortmund, Bayern
AFP, MUNICH, Germany
Borussia Dortmund fought back to stun bitter rivals Bayern Munich 3-2 on Wednesday to reach the DFB Pokal final and shatter the Bavarian giants’ dreams of the double.
A brilliant strike from Ousmane Dembele 15 minutes from the end settled the semi-final at Munich’s Allianz Arena after Dortmund trailed 2-1 at halftime.
“This is the biggest moment of my career with Dortmund. It’s hard to come to Munich and get a win,” said Dembele, 19, who only joined Dortmund at the start of the season.
The result is a dramatic turn-around for Thomas Tuchel’s Dortmund, who were hammered 4-1 by runaway leaders Bayern in Munich in the Bundesliga just three weeks ago.
“We came from 2-1 down and still won — that’s crazy,” Tuchel said. “We had completely written off our 4-1 defeat in the league. We played well for 20 minutes and then we let it slip.”
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