Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo broke the La Liga goal-scoring record with his 39th and 40th league goals of the season as Real Madrid hammered relegated Almeria 8-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.
Ronaldo poked home from close range on four minutes for his record-breaking goal to overtake the previous best of 38 set by Athletic Bilbao’s Telmo Zarra in 1951 and equaled by Real Madrid’s Mexican legend Hugo Sanchez in 1990.
Ronaldo struck again on 77 minutes with a brilliant run and finish to make it 40 league goals for the season and seal his first Pichichi award for the league’s top-scorer.
It caps a fantastic season from the Portuguese sensation although he has just the Kings Cup trophy to show for his two seasons at Madrid.
Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor, trying to persuade Real to make his loan move from Manchester City permanent, grabbed his first ever Madrid hat-trick and Frenchman Karim Benzema scored a brace as Real crushed hapless Almeria and went past a century of league goals this season.
Champions Barcelona ended their stellar league campaign with a 3-1 win at Malaga in a warm-up for next week’s Champions League final against Manchester United.
Malaga took a 31st-minute lead, but Barcelona’s collection of youngsters and fringe players came back with a 43rd minute Bojan Krkic penalty equalizing before Dutchman Ibrahim Afellay (75) and 20-year-old Marc Bartra (84) scored their first league goals for Barca, who have taken three straight league titles.
In other matches, fallen giants Deportivo La Coruna were relegated from the Spanish top-flight following a 2-0 home loss against Valencia on Saturday.
Real Zaragoza were third from bottom heading into the final round of games, but their 2-1 win at Levante on Saturday lifted them to safety and Deportivo joined Almeria and Hercules in being relegated.
Depor had spent 20 consecutive seasons in the first division winning the league title in 2000 and reaching the Champions League semi-finals in 2004.
Elsewhere, Sevilla and Athletic Bilbao clinched fifth and sixth respectively with wins on Saturday to seal automatic qualification to the Europa League.
Alvaro Negredo took his season’s tally to 20 with a brace as Sevilla won 3-2 at Espanyol, while Bilbao triumphed 2-1 at Racing Santander on Saturday.
A hat-trick from Sergio “Kun” Aguero helped Atletico Madrid defeat Real Mallorca in a thrilling 4-3 win, but despite having the same number of points as Sevilla and Bilbao, the capital side finish seventh on the head to head rule and must play a qualifier to get into the Europa League.
In other action, Hercules and Sporting Gijon played to a scoreless tie, Real Sociedad and Getafe drew 1-1 and Osasuna topped Villarreal 1-0.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
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