A double from Kylian Mbappe fired Real Madrid to a 3-0 win at Athletic Club in Bilbao to tighten the La Liga title race with Barcelona.
The French forward struck in each half of the match on Wednesday, either side of Eduardo Camavinga’s header, to ensure Los Blancos kept pace with Barcelona, who had temporarily moved four points clear at the top on Tuesday with their win against Atletico Madrid.
Real were reeling from three consecutive draws that allowed their fierce rivals to gain pole position in the league, while they had also been struck by a heavy defeat by Liverpool in their recent dry spell.
There was little to note of nerves from Xavi Alonso’s side, even though rumours were swirling that the former Real midfielder was coming under increased pressure in his first season in charge at Santiago Bernabeu where he replaced Carlos Ancelotti in the summer.
The match at Athletic’s San Mames marked one of Real’s best displays of the season.
Mbappe opened the scoring early on as Trent Alexander-Arnold provided his first La Liga assist, with Camavinga nodding in the second before the break.
French superstar Mbappe slammed home another in the second half for his 16th league goal of the season to seal Madrid’s victory.
Among the negatives for Los Blancos were apparent injuries for Alexander-Arnold and Camavinga in the second half, with both players replaced.
Mbappe almost sent Real Madrid ahead in the fourth minute, but Unai Simon made a smart save at his near post, and then parried a Vinicius effort.
Madrid came out of the blocks strongly and took the lead in the seventh minute, through a brilliant Mbappe goal.
Alexander-Arnold picked out the forward with a fine long pass, and Mbappe drifted menacingly towards the box and produced a perfect finish to beat Simon.
Gorka Guruzeta fired over and forced Thibaut Courtois into a good save at the other end, on one of Athletic’s rare forays forward.
Their best chance came when Nico Williams and Alex Berenguer combined, and Courtois produced a superb stop to deny the latter.
It woke Madrid back up, and they took control once again, threatening twice through Vinicius, who was connecting efficiently with Mbappe.
The Brazilian winger hit the outside of the post with a low effort from a tight angle, with Simon out of his goal attempting to block him off.
The goalkeeper made an excellent save to thwart Vinicius one-on-one a few minutes later after Eder Militao sent him through on goal.
Madrid grabbed their second before the interval at the end of a fine team move, with Mbappe nodding Alexander-Arnold’s cross back across goal for Camavinga to head home from point-blank range.
Courtois tipped over Mikel Jauregizar’s fierce effort from range early in the second half to stop Athletic from earning a foothold in the game.
Madrid’s night worsened when Alexander-Arnold pulled up with an apparent muscular injury and had to be replaced by Raul Asencio.
Mbappe put the game beyond doubt with another long-range effort, which flew in at the near post. Simon might have done more to keep it out, perhaps undoing some of his earlier good work.
Camavinga was taken off hurt later on in another potential injury blow for former Real Sociedad player Alonso, on an otherwise dream outing in the Basque Country against his former rivals.
The coach even got a warm embrace from Vinicius when he substituted the Brazilian, despite the player seeming to be at loggerheads with him over the past few weeks.
Source: AlJazeera.com
