Totalsportek

MADRID: Jude Bellingham scored the winner as Real Madrid beat Barcelona 2-1 in a tense Clasico earlier this morning, widening their five-point gap at the top of La Liga.

Defending champions Barcelona had won four consecutive meetings last season, but new Real manager Xabi Alonso ended that streak in his debut in charge of the prestigious competition.

Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring for Madrid before Fermin Lopez equalised for the visitors at the Santiago Bernabeu. But Bellingham added a second goal before half-time that proved decisive.

Tensions peaked at the end of the match when Barca midfielder Pedri was shown a red card after collecting a second yellow card.

The victory saw Madrid make it nine wins from their first 10 league games of the season, making up for the disappointment of their defeat to Atletico Madrid last month.

“Against Atletico we didn’t play as expected and today we proved our true potential. We need to keep up this pace,” said Madrid midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni.

Alonso admitted that the victory was very meaningful after last season Real failed to compete with Barca in a big meeting.

“We need a win like this to restore our confidence in being able to beat big teams,” he said.

Meanwhile, the visiting squad is being managed by assistant coach Marcus Sorg after Hansi Flick was suspended following a red card last week in the win over Girona.

“The season is still long, there are 28 matches left. We’re not panicking about the current situation,” said Sorg.

Barcelona were without several key players including Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Dani Olmo, while Lamine Yamal, who is still not fully recovered, was also included.

Madrid were almost awarded an early penalty after Yamal collided with Vinicius Junior, but the decision was overturned after a VAR review.

Mbappe didn’t wait long to celebrate when a brilliant run and a perfect pass from Bellingham allowed the French striker to curl a shot past Wojciech Szczesny – his 11th league goal of the season.

The Polish goalkeeper then made several crucial saves before Barcelona equalised on the counter-attack, when Marcus Rashford crossed for Lopez to finish in the 38th minute.

But five minutes later, Bellingham restored Madrid’s lead when he headed home Eder Militao’s rebound after a Vinicius Junior pass.

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LONDON: Viktor Gyokeres scored twice to end a nine-match goal drought as Arsenal produced a furious second-half display to thrash Atletico Madrid 4-0, extending their perfect record in the Champions League, early this morning.

Gabriel Magalhaes and Gabriel Martinelli opened the scoring before two goals from Gyokeres completed the Gunners’ goal celebration, all of which came in a 13-minute period around the hour mark.

The English Premier League leaders are now joined by two giants, Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan, at the top of the group, as the three teams that have collected a full nine points from their opening three matches.

The Gyokeres’ previous decline in scoring has been the only minor concern for Mikel Arteta in what has been a promising start to the season.

The Swedish striker, who was signed from Sporting Lisbon to fill the void left by Arsenal’s prolific striker, has scored just three goals, all at home against Leeds and Nottingham Forest, in his previous 11 appearances.

“Hopefully this will be the start of a beautiful run of goals,” said Arteta.

“That’s why we brought him here. He has high standards for himself, but we also really appreciate all his contributions to the team.”

Atletico, on the other hand, have continued to fail to win away from home this season and the way they collapsed after an hour of play must have worried coach Diego Simeone.

Another clean sheet means Arsenal have now conceded just three times in 12 games in all competitions this season.

Declan Rice’s free kick deflected beautifully to Gabriel who headed it into the corner of the goal.

Myles Lewis-Skelly then passed the ball straight to Martinelli who deflected the shot into the corner of the goal for his third goal in three consecutive Champions League matches.

Gyokeres finally ended his goal drought when his close-range effort was deflected by defender David Hancko, causing Jan Oblak to miss.

Three minutes later, Gyokeres was again in the right position to head home Gabriel’s header from Rice’s corner for his second goal.

“It’s been a while, but we’ve still won games, so this period has actually been pretty good,” said Gyokeres.

“As a striker, of course you want to score goals. It was nice to get two goals tonight and this win shows our true level.”