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September 25, 2017

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Atleti, Real and Barca triumphant

BARCELONA opened up a four-point gap at the top of La Liga, maintaining its 100 percent start as it cruised to a 3-0 victory at Catalan rival Girona on Saturday.

An own goal either side of the break and a Luis Suarez strike in his 100th league appearance for the club 21 minutes from the end were enough for Ernesto Valverde’s team to secure the points in the first-ever league meeting between the sides.

Having seen Atletico defeat Sevilla 2-0 to move into second place and a Dani Ceballos double help an unconvincing Real to sneak past bottom-of-the-table Alaves 2-1 earlier on, Barcelona made light work of its opponent, even if two of its goals were fortunate.

“There was pressure on us given the results in the other games and the atmosphere here today,” Valverde said. “It’s a derby, a great atmosphere and we needed to play with our heads as well as our hearts. We needed to combat Girona’s enthusiasm and we got the job done. Of course, I’m delighted with how things are — I’m not going to complain when we win. I’ll do that when things aren’t going well.”

The decision by Girona coach Pablo Machin to man-mark Lionel Messi with Pablo Maffeo helped stop him from adding to his best ever start to a Liga. Messi scored nine goals in the first five rounds.

“I don’t think that Messi was the decisive player that he usually is,” Machin said. “We tried, but we were playing against some of the best players in the world. When you score in our own net it makes it very tough.”

Real returned to winning ways following its shock 0-1 defeat to Betis in midweek as two first-half goals from Ceballos in his maiden league start for the club sandwiched a Manu Garcia header for host Alaves.

There were missed chances at both ends in the second half. Cristiano Ronaldo, who is yet to score in La Liga this season, and Alaves substitute Alfonso Pedraza both struck the woodwork twice.

However, Zinedine Zidane’s side hung on to claim a third league win of the season and move on to 11 points.

Second-half strikes from Yannick Carrasco and Antoine Griezmann helped Atletico to leapfrog Sevilla into second place. It remains unbeaten with four wins and two draws after six games.




 

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