• Saturday, 21 December 2024

Barcelona back to winning ways, Sevilla beat arch-rivals Real Betis

Barcelona back to winning ways, Sevilla beat arch-rivals Real Betis

London, 7 October 2024 (PA Media/dpa/MIA) -- Robert Lewandowski scored a first-half hat-trick as Barcelona got back to winning ways with a 3-0 victory at Alaves.

The LaLiga leaders lost at Osasuna last weekend to end a seven-match winning streak, but bounced back with a convincing midweek 5-0 Champions League triumph over Young Boys.

Lewandowski struck three times inside the opening 31 minutes at Mendizorroza, while mid-table Alaves went on to fight hard to respond and saw a goal from Toni Martinez ruled out just before the interval.

The result restored a three-point lead for Hansi Flick's men over rivals Real Madrid.

Atletico Madrid took the lead after just 52 seconds at Real Sociedad, but had to settle for a point from a 1-1 draw.

The visitors made a flying start when Antoine Griezmann's clever backheel from a long ball set up Julian Alvarez to fire the ball into the bottom corner.

Sociedad, though, eventually hauled themselves level with just six minutes left through a looping 25-yard effort from Luka Sucic.

Girona got back to winning ways with a remarkable 2-1 home victory over Athletic Bilbao which saw goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga save three penalties - from Alex Berenguer, Inaki Williams and Ander Herrera - before Cristhian Stuani netted the winner nine minutes into stoppage time from the penalty spot.

Also on Sunday, Sevilla beat arch-rivals Real Betis 1-0 thanks to Dodi Lukebakio's second-half penalty.

In Serie A, David De Gea was another goalkeeping penalty hero after saving two spot-kicks as Fiorentina claimed a 2-1 home victory over AC Milan.

Fiorentina had earlier seen Moise Kean's spot-kick saved by Mike Maignan in the 20th minute before loanee Yacine Adli struck against his parent club to put I Viola ahead.

AC Milan - who are chasing a fourth-straight league win to potentially move up to second place - were then awarded a penalty in first-half stoppage-time, but Theo Hernandez was denied by De Gea.

Kean saw a goal ruled out soon after the restart before De Gea made another spot-kick save, this time from Tammy Abraham.

Milan eventually equalised on the hour through Christian Pulisic, only for Albert Gudmundsson to score the winner with 15 minutes left.

Kean then saw a late effort rattle the crossbar before Hernandez saw red for the visitors at the death.

Juventus were earlier held to a 1-1 draw at home by Cagliari, who scored a late penalty at the Allianz Stadium, where Juve forward Francisco Conceicao was sent off after picking up a second yellow card for diving in the closing stages.

Paris St Germain missed the chance to move back top of Ligue 1 after they came from behind to draw 1-1 at Nice.

Ali Abdi's deflected effort had given the home side a first-half lead and, while Nuno Mendes equalised soon after the restart, PSG could not find a late winner.