27/01/2025

MONDAY | JAN 27, 2025

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SPORTS

K YLIAN MBAPPE continued his rich vein of form with a hattrick yesterday to power Real Madrid to a 3-0 win over Valladolid and a four-point lead at the top of La Liga. Second-place Atletico Madrid drew 1-1 at home earlier against Villarreal, while Barcelona, third, trail Los Blancos by 10 points before hosting Valencia overnight. Mbappe has hit his devastating best in recent weeks after struggling for consistency following his summer switch from Paris Saint-Germain. The French superstar climbed to 15 league goals for the season, trailing only Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski, on 16. Mbappe’s first Madrid treble helped his team, playing without suspended Brazil international Vinicius Junior, ease to a simple away victory against

Red-hot Mbappe French superstar’s hattrick extends Madrid’s edge on Atletico

penalty spot in the final stages, after Mario Martin lunged into a tackle on Bellingham in the area. Mbappe sent Hein the wrong way from the spot for his 12th goal in his last 11 games across all competitions. “Mbappe is bringing a lot to the team, he’s found form in the last couple of months and obviously for us that’s a plus, he’s a player with a lot of quality,” Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti told reporters. “We’ve got an advantage in the league but there’s too far to go to say it’s over, we’ve got a small advantage and I hope we can take advantage of it in the coming games.” Atletico Madrid dropped two more points in the title race in a hard-fought draw with Villarreal. Samuel Lino’s strike after 58 minutes pulled Diego Simeone’s side level after Villarreal took the lead through a Gerard Moreno first-half penalty at the Metropolitano stadium. “We found the draw, we took the game to a place where we could have won it, but it wasn’t possible,” said Simeone. “We will continue on our path, going game by game.” – AFP

bottom side Valladolid. “I’m happy with the hattrick but more happy with the win, I feel like I say that every week but it’s the truth,” Mbappe told Real Madrid TV . “It was very important to win today after Atletico’s result… so we’re happy and go back to Madrid with the victory.” The hosts made early inroads, with Madrid stopper Thibaut Courtois saving from David Torres’ header, but that was about as good as it got for Valladolid. Madrid started to chip away at their

opponents and made the breakthrough in the 30th minute when Jude Bellingham nudged a deflected pass through to Mbappe, who curled into the top corner. Madrid were controlling the game without creating too many chances, but with Mbappe in his purple patch, he only needed one more to put the game to bed. Rodrygo Goes slipped in the forward who curled a low effort past goalkeeper Karl Hein from a similar position to his first goal in the 57th minute. Mbappe completed his hattrick from the

26/01/2025 (SUN)

5916/2025

Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe (right) shoots prior to scoring his second goal during his team’s La Liga match

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chance,” said Motta whose team have won once since the turn of the year. Kane on target for Bayern HARRY KANE scored as Bayern Munich won 2-1 at Freiburg yesterday to move six points clear of Bayer Leverkusen, who threw away a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at RB Leipzig. Kane and English compatriot Eric Dier created the opener in the 15th minute. Dier found Kane who drilled a low shot through the fingers of Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu. The goal was Kane’s first from open play since mid-November and his 17th in 17 league games this season. Bayern doubled their lead after 54 minutes when Kim Min-jae outmuscled Atubolu and headed in a Joshua Kimmich corner. Freiburg made Bayern sweat when Matthias Ginter headed in a corner with 22 minutes remaining, but the German giants held firm to bounce back from Wednesday’s surprise 3-0 Champions League loss at Feyenoord. “We’ve played better games than that,” Kimmich told Sky Germany . “But that is exactly what you need sometimes. We deserved to win.” Bayern’s win means defending champions Leverkusen are now six points behind the league leaders, after they dropped points in the league for the first time since early November at Leipzig. “We’re not satisfied, things could have been better but they could have been worse. We’ll keep going,” said Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso.

Napoli continue Serie A charge with win over Juve NAPOLI continued their Serie A title charge yesterday by coming from behind to win a feverish contest with rivals Juventus 2-1 and go six points clear at the top of the table. Antonio Conte’s side bounced back from Randal Kolo Muani’s strike moments from halftime in his Juve debut. Napoli won their seventh straight match thanks to a bullet header from Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Romelu Lukaku’s 69th-minute penalty. Napoli are hunting a second Scudetto in three seasons and yesterday’s win, and in particular their dominant performance in the second half, was another sign that they, and not Inter Milan, are the team to beat. “We wanted to win, we did and we’re all very happy. There’s not much else to say,” said Anguissa to DAZN . “We know that we’re a good team but all we can do is take it one game at a time, with the self-confidence of knowing that we’re a team with character that’s difficult to beat.” Juve, meanwhile, are 16 points behind Napoli in fifth after falling to their first league defeat of the season, not the position expected when Thiago Motta replaced Massimiliano Allegri as coach in the summer. “I’m disappointed with the defeat because we played well in the first half, against a team which isn’t top by

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