Karim Benzema scored twice and Marco Asensio added another on his return from a 10-month injury layoff as Real Madrid beat Valencia 3-0 to keep pace with leader Barcelona in the Spanish league.<\/p>\n
The home win on Thursday left Madrid two points behind Barcelona, which defeated Legan s 2-0 on Tuesday for its second straight win after the pandemic break.<\/p>\n
Madrid took control of the match after a lackluster first half in which Valencia had the most significant scoring chances and a goal disallowed by video review.<\/p>\n
Benzema opened the scoring in the 61st minute after a pass by Eden Hazard, who again was decisive for Madrid in his second match after a long injury layoff.<\/p>\n
Asensio, making his first appearance since a serious knee injury last year, scored with his first touch about 30 seconds after entering the match in the 74th.<\/p>\n
That’s the way to come back, his teammates could be heard saying during the goal celebration at the empty Alfredo Di St fano Stadium.<\/p>\n
I couldn’t wait to come back after so many months of hard work, said Asensio, who was injured in a friendly last July. I’m glad that I’m back and that I was able to score.”<\/p>\n
Asensio also set up Benzema’s third goal with a one-touch cross on a counterattack and the French striker finished off the move sublimely using his right foot to flick the ball away from a defender and then his left to hammer it into the top of the net. It was the Frenchman’s 16th league goal to leave him five behind scoring leader Lionel Messi.<\/p>\n
It was the fifth double this season for Benzema, who passed Ferenc Puskas to become Madrid’s fifth leading scorer all-time.<\/p>\n
Valencia went a man down in the 89th after a straight red card was shown to South Korean midfielder Lee Kang-in for a foul on Madrid defender Sergio Ramos. A few moments later, midfielder Francis Coquelin had to leave injured after the team had already made all five substitutions.<\/p>\n
Valencia is winless after the break and dropped to eighth place. It had the best chances early on, with Rodrigo hitting the far post after a breakaway in the 14th. His goal a few moments later was disallowed by video review after a close offside call.<\/p>\n
It was Madrid’s second straight game at its training center, which is being used while the Santiago Bernab u Stadium remains under renovation until the end of the season.<\/p>\n
REAL SOCIEDAD STALLS<\/p>\n
Real Sociedad failed to regain fourth place after a 2-0 loss at Alav s in which it couldn’t get a single shot on target.<\/p>\n
Borja Sainz opened the scoring with a goal awarded following video review in the 56th, and Mart n Aguirregabiria sealed the victory deep in stoppage time at the Mendizorroza Stadium.<\/p>\n
A victory would have sent Sociedad past fourth-place Atl tico Madrid, which won 5-0 at Osasuna on Wednesday. It stayed in sixth instead, two points from the final Champions League spot.<\/p>\n
Sociedad went a man down in the 81st as defender Joseba Zald a was sent off with a second yellow card, but Alav s was also reduced to 10 men six minutes later when midfielder Tom s Pina was shown a second yellow.<\/p>\n
Sociedad had won four of its last five league games before the break, with its only setback a loss at Barcelona. Its first match after the league resumed was a 1-1 draw against midtable Osasuna at home.<\/p>\n
We didn’t play our best today, and we hadn’t played our best in the previous match either, Sociedad midfielder Igor Zubeldia said.<\/p>\n
We need to improve for our next match. Sociedad will next host Real Madrid, while Alav s visits Celta Vigo.<\/p>\n
Alav s, which hadn’t won in three straight league matches, moved to 11th place.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Karim Benzema scored twice and Marco Asensio added another on his return from a 10-month injury layoff as Real Madrid beat Valencia 3-0 to keep pace with leader Barcelona in the Spanish league. The home win on Thursday left Madrid two points behind Barcelona, which defeated Legan s 2-0 on Tuesday for its second straight win after the pandemic break. Madrid took control of the match after a lackluster first half in which Valencia had the most significant scoring chances and a goal disallowed by video review. Benzema opened the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27317,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27315\/revisions\/27317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}