Barcelona, Dec 5: When Karim Benzema went down injured, Vinícius Júnior and the rarely used Luka Jovic stepped up to secure Real Madrid a 2-0 win at Real Sociedad and strengthen its hold of the Spanish league lead.
The young attacking players struck goals early in the second half in San Sebastián to give Madrid its eighth consecutive win across all competitions and leave it eight points clear of nearest chaser Sevilla. Madrid’s victory came after Atlético Madrid and Barcelona were upset at home, leaving them further adrift.
Atlético Madrid trailed by 10 points in fourth place after the defending champion was stunned by Mallorca 2-1 in the capital. Barcelona was a whopping 16 points behind in seventh place following a 1-0 loss to Real Betis, its first defeat since Xavi Hernández took over as coach.
Manuel Pellegrini’s Betis rose into third place, right behind Sevilla, which beat Villarreal 1-0 thanks to a goal from Lucas Ocampos.
Since Jovic’s return in this campaign, he had tallied only just over 100 minutes as a sparsely used substitute, scoring zero goals. But when Benzema gingerly walked off the pitch while grimacing in pain in the 17th minute, coach Carlo Ancelotti turned to Jovic to take his place.
The Serbia striker proved key to Madrid taming the high-pace attack of Sociedad in the 48th. After Vinícius passed to him in the box, Jovic quickly returned the ball for Vinícius to fire in his 10th goal. Jovic headed in his third goal for Madrid to secure the points in the 58th.
Juanmi Jiménez finished off a well-orchestrated counterattack to take Betis’ winner with 11 minutes to play against Barcelona. Barcelona had won twice and drawn once since Xavi replaced Ronald Koeman.
Betis’ goal came just when Barcelona was playing at its best after Ousmane Dembelé went on as a substitute for the final half hour.
Bayern, which is already qualified as the group winner, beat Barcelona 3-0 in their first meeting this season. If it loses, Barcelona would need Benfica to not beat Dynamo Kyiv to avoid elimination.
Atlético striker Cunha broke through for the defending champion in the 68th, only for Franco Russo to head Mallorca level in the 80th. Take Kubo struck Mallorca’s second goal in injury time. (AP)
