Jude Bellingham guided champions Real Madrid to a comfortable 3-0 victory at Girona on Saturday in Spanish La Liga, with Kylian Mbappe also on the scoresheet after two high-profile penalty misses in recent games.
Los Blancos cut the gap on league leaders Barcelona to two points after the Catalans drew 2-2 at Real Betis, with Madrid having played one fewer match.
Bellingham opened the scoring before half-time and set up Turkish playmaker Arda Guler for Madrid’s second, before Mbappe produced a clinical finish for their third.
Photo: AFP
Bellingham and defender Ferland Mendy were replaced with apparent knocks in the second half ahead of Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League clash at Atalanta BC.
Manager Carlo Ancelotti confirmed Bellingham was “available” for the game, but said Mendy had sustained a muscular injury.
After Madrid’s fifth defeat across all competitions in midweek against Athletic Bilbao, having lost just twice last season, Ancelotti pledged his team would improve, and they were significantly better against Girona.
Photo: AFP
“Bellingham scored his fifth goal running, Mbappe scored, Brahim [Diaz] did good work, Arda scored a great goal,” Ancelotti said. “We have to bear the moment out and as I said, bit by bit we will come back [to form].”
With Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo sidelined, Ancelotti selected Bellingham and Diaz in support of Mbappe.
The French forward has been the focus of criticism in the past few weeks after blowing penalties against Liverpool and Athletic Bilbao, and struggling to find the form which made him a star with Paris Saint-Germain and his country.
Photo: AFP
Earlier Real Betis twice came behind to stop Barcelona from triumphing in Seville.
Assane Diao levelled in the 94th minute to stun Barcelona, who opened the scoring after 39 minutes through Robert Lewandowski.
After Giovani Lo Celso leveled for the mid-table hosts from the penalty spot, substitute Ferran Torres struck what seemed the winner before Diao’s late intervention.
Photo: Reuters
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said his team had to improve on the road, where most of their setbacks have come this season.
“We have the quality to win every match, but we also have to show that,” Flick said. “[In] the away matches we have to be much stronger than we played here.”
PREMIER LEAGUE
AFP, LONDON
Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United honeymoon is truly over after Nottingham Forest inflicted a second straight English Premier League defeat on his side on Saturday while Manchester City stumbled again.
Leaders Liverpool maintained their seven-point lead at the top of the table even though their match at Everton was postponed because of storms on Merseyside.
Amorim replaced the sacked Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford last month after a terrible start to the season.
He began brightly, with a draw and two wins in his first three games.
However, reality is starting to bite hard after a 2-0 Premier League defeat at Arsenal in midweek followed by Saturday’s chastening 3-2 loss to high-flying Forest, who capitalized on United’s defensive blunders.
United forward Rasmus Hojlund canceled out Nikola Milenkovic’s early goal at Old Trafford, but Morgan Gibbs-White and Chris Wood put the visitors in charge. Forest kept the home side at bay after Bruno Fernandes pulled one back.
United’s Andre Onana was embarrassed by a swerving Gibbs-White strike for Forest’s second while the goalkeeper, Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs De Ligt all failed to deal with a looping Wood header for the third.
The win lifts Forest to fifth in the Premier League table. United are languishing in 13th spot.
Meanwhile, Dan Ashworth has left his role as sporting director at Manchester United after five months in the job by mutual agreement, the club said yesterday.
The 53-year-old was recruited from Newcastle United and arrived in July to much fanfare, but the decision was made to part ways after a meeting between Ashworth and chief executive Omar Berrada after Saturday’s loss, the Athletic reported.
Manchester City failed to win for the eighth time in nine games in a 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace.
Pep Guardiola’s men had the chance to go second in the table, but failed to build on an encouraging 3-0 win over Forest in midweek.
Fourth-placed City are eight points behind Liverpool and a fifth straight Premier League title is looking increasingly unlikely.
The final league derby between Everton and Liverpool at Goodison Park would be rescheduled after Storm Darragh battered western regions of England with high winds and heavy rain.
Brentford enjoy the best home record in the division and made it seven wins from eight games at the Gtech Community Stadium with a thrilling 4-2 victory over Newcastle United.
Aston Villa beat bottom-of-the-table Southampton 1-0 thanks to Jhon Duran’s goal in his first Premier League start of the season.
Additional reporting by Reuters
SERIE A
AFP, MILAN, Italy
Samuel Mbangula curled in a superb equalizer two minutes into stoppage time to salvage a point for Juventus against Bologna on Saturday.
The 2-2 draw left Juventus sixth, seven points adrift of Serie A leaders Atalanta, but it could have been worse as Bologna had appeared to be heading for victory at the Allianz Stadium.
AS Roma thrashed US Lecce 4-1 as the club’s decision to bring in 73-year-old Claudio Ranieri as the club’s third coach of the season begins to pay off.
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Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ￥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ￥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
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