Gonzalo García bagged a hat-trick to lead Real Madrid to a 5-1 victory over Real Betis at the Bernabéu on Sunday, cutting Barcelona’s La Liga lead back to four points.
The 21-year-old forward, who scored four goals at last summer’s Club World Cup, stepped up in the absence of La Liga’s top scorer, Kylian Mbappé, sidelined by a knee injury. García was left unmarked at the far post to head in Rodrygo’s precise cross for a deserved 20th-minute lead.
García doubled Real’s lead early in the second half, chesting the ball down and volleying home from Federico Valverde’s long ball, before Raúl Asencio added a header from another Rodrygo delivery.
Cucho Hernandéz pulled one back for Betis in the 66th minute, moments after Giovani Lo Celso struck the post, and the visitors looked more lively following the goal. Thibaut Courtois produced saves to deny Rodrigo Riquelme and blocked a shot from Antony to preserve Madrid’s two-goal cushion.
García completed his hat-trick in the 82nd minute with a superb backheel finish from Arda Guler’s pass, before Fran García rounded off the rout in stoppage time by converting Valverde’s cross. The win was Madrid’s third in a row in the league and keeps the pressure on their title rivals.
“It’s a great way to start the year … my first hat-trick at the Bernabéu,” García said. “Mbappé is currently the best player in the world, he gives us a lot with his goals. I have the best players in the world in front of me. I think about myself, I work hard every day and I make the most of every minute the manager gives me.”
Atlético Madrid were held to an entertaining 1-1 draw at Real Sociedad, with Gonçalo Guedes cancelling out Alexander Sørloth’s opener for the visitors in a five-minute spell after the break at Anoeta Stadium.
Sevilla slipped to a 3-0 home defeat against struggling Levante. Iker Losada finished a flowing team move to put the visitors in front at half-time, before Carlos Espí doubled their lead in the 65th minute. Isaac Romero missed a penalty for Sevilla before Carlos Álvarez added a late third for Levante, who climb off the foot of the table.
In Ligue 1, Désiré Doué and Ousmane Dembélé marked their returns to the Paris Saint-Germain starting XI by securing a 2-1 win over Paris FC as the French capital enjoyed its first top-flight derby since 1990.
Victory for Luis Enrique’s second-place PSG, thanks to goals either side of half-time by Doué and Dembélé, took them back to within one point of the surprise league leaders, Lens.
“I think it was Ousmane’s best game (of the season) tonight, he’s back to his best,” Luis Enrique said of his star attacker, who has endured an injury-plagued campaign.
Marseille lost ground after slumping to a home defeat to lowly Nantes. Arthur Vermeeren was sent off in the 26th minute for a late tackle on the goalkeeper Anthony Lopes, and Fabien Centonze fired Nantes in front soon after. Rémy Cabella secured victory from the penalty spot with Marseille down to nine men after Bilal Nadir received two bookings in quick succession.
Inter returned to the top of Serie A after a 3-1 win over Bologna at San Siro. Goals from Piotr Zielinski, Lautaro Martínez and Marcus Thuram lifted Inter one point clear of their city rivals Milan, who had taken provisional control of the Italian summit with a 1-0 win at Cagliari on Friday.
The defending champions, Napoli, sit third, two points shy of Inter. They won 2-0 at Lazio earlier in the day. First-half goals from Leonardo Spinazzola and Amir Rrahmani helped the visitors to victory in a heated contest that featured three red cards.
Lazio’s afternoon unravelled further in the 81st minute when Tijjani Noslin was sent off for a clumsy challenge on Alessandro Buongiorno.
Tempers flared just before full-time as Lazio’s Adam Marusic and Napoli’s Pasquale Mazzocchi became embroiled in a heated confrontation, prompting Antonio Conte to intervene in an attempt to separate the pair. Both players were subsequently shown red cards, with no action taken against the Napoli head coach.
“I have to congratulate the lads, playing with this level of technical ability and physical strength without letting Lazio play is not easy,” Conte told Dazn. “We played at a very high level of quality.”
Fiorentina grabbed a vital victory to move off the bottom of the table as Moise Kean netted a dramatic winner in stoppage time to sink Cremonese. La Viola are now level on points with Pisa and Verona, who lost 3-0 at home to Torino.
