Samuel Eto’o and Gonzalo Higuain both scored four goals in an incredible Saturday night of soccer as Barcelona thrashed Valladolid 6-0, while Real Madrid labored to a 4-3 triumph over Malaga.
Barcelona romped to their eighth successive Spanish league victory over Valladolid to stay two points clear of defending champions Real at the summit.
With the help of the unstoppable Lionel Messi, Cameroon international Eto’o scored four times — in the 12th minute, 30th minute, 42nd minute and 44th minute — in an unforgettable first half at the Camp Nou before Eidur Gudjohnsen and Thierry Henry got on the score sheet in the second period.
PHOTO: AP
Eto’o seems to love the first 45 minutes having scored a 23-minute hat-trick in a 5-0 demolition of Almeria at the end of last month and his quadruple against Valladolid means he leads the goalscoring charts with 13 goals in 10 games.
“The victory was the most important thing, not how many goals we score,” Eto’o said. “We produced a great performance tonight and are doing well. It wasn’t easy, as Valladolid are a good team and brave opponents.”
Asked how he would celebrate his four-goal haul, Eto’o replied: “I will celebrate at home.”
The African came off 15 minutes from time to a standing ovation as the home fans did Mexican waves to celebrate a thrilling win that could have been in two figures had Henry taken a glut of chances. Barca are averaging more than three goals a game this season, having scored 34 goals in their first 10 matches.
Earlier, Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain had fired Real Madrid to the top of the table with his own quadruple, including two penalties, against Malaga.
Real looked to be heading for an embarrassing home defeat, after Sergio Ramos had been sent off for stamping close to halftime and Antonio Apono had fired Malaga into a 3-2 lead with a 70th-minute penalty. But the 20-year-old Higuain, out to impress new Argentina coach Diego Maradona, rescued Real, scoring the equalizer straight from the kick-off and then a dramatic penalty winner on 78 minutes after his initial spot-kick had been saved.
“He [Higuain] is clearly playing in his favored position [center-forward] where he can use his speed and dribbling ability,” Real coach Bernd Schuster said. “I am delighted how things are going for him at the moment, although I told him that he could change his penalty-taking style a little.”
Higuain now has nine goals for the season and is set for a run in the team with Ruud van Nistelrooy sidelined with a knee injury. Schuster showed his faith in Higuain, playing him ahead of captain Raul Gonzalez, who was dropped for the Malaga match after a poor display against Juventus.
Going behind three times will concern Schuster, but the German preferred to focus on the spirit shown by his 10 men.
“Despite having a man less, we still went in search of the win,” the former Getafe coach said. “Of course, I would prefer to win in a different way, but this victory is a great morale boost for the team.”
Asked about Ramos’ red card for stamping, Schuster replied: “The red card surprised me and I don’t want to say anything else.”
After losing 2-0 to Juventus in their midweek Champions League home match, the Santiago Bernabeu crowd wanted a convincing display from their team.
They didn’t quite get that, but the three points will do for Real.
Schuster has been criticizing referees throughout this season, but Real certainly had their slice of fortune against poor Malaga, with question marks over both of their penalties.
Scoring three times at Real’s ground and having nothing to show for it was heartbreaking for Malaga, who attacked from the first whistle.
“I am disappointed not to have won,” Malaga coach Antonio Tapia said.
“We produced a magnificent display from start to finish. We played good football, scored three goals and deserved to win,” he said.
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds said it felt like an “impossible dream” when fellow Hollywood A-lister Rob McElhenney first floated the idea of buying soccer club Wrexham, along with a pitch for a documentary. The ultimate goal was reaching the Premier League. Four years after they purchased the north Wales outfit, Wrexham are one league away from achieving their lofty goal after a 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic on Saturday saw them promoted for a record third consecutive time. “We were standing there doing a press conference four years ago, and said our goal is to make it to the Premier League, and
RSS