Skip to main content

Real Madrid record 16th straight win

James scoring Madrid's first goal

James scoring Madrid’s first goal

Real Madrid beat Espanyol for a record-equalling 16th consecutive win in Spain’s top division and moved three points clear at the top of La Liga.

Goals from James Rodriguez and Karim Benzema gave them the win that matches the run of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona side in the 2010-11 season.

Real, without Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo for the trip to the Cornella-El Prat stadium, made it four wins from four this season.

Wales forward Bale picked up a hip problem in the 2-1 Champions League win at Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday, while Portuguese star Ronaldo was ruled out with flu.

Colombia forward Rodriguez, who was linked with a move away from the Bernabeu in the summer, scored Real’s opener just before the break.

Receiving the ball from Toni Kroos 30 yards from goal, Rodriguez rode two challenges before unleashing a low shot past Diego Lopez into the bottom corner.

Benzema doubled the lead on 70 minutes, meeting Lucas Vazquez’s low cross for a simple tap-in from close range.

The win maintains Real’s unbeaten start to the season and puts them on 12 points, ahead of Barcelona and Las Palmas on nine.

Former Watford manager Quique Sanchez Flores has just two points from his opening four games since taking over at Espanyol in the summer.

-BBC

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Court grants Fani-Kayode N50m bail

Fani-kayode sandwiched by EFCC officials Justice James Tsoho of the Federal High Court Abuja on Thursday granted a N50m bail to former spokesman of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode. Fani-Kayode was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a five-count charge of money laundering to the tune of N26m. Fani-Kayode is the sole defendant in the fresh charges numbered, FHC/ABJ/CR/140/2016. The EFCC accused the defendant of diverting 26 million Naira allegedly received from the ONSA while Sambo Dasuki was in office. The anti-graft agency also accused him of handling the said N26 million without going through financial institution as required under the Money Laundering Act. The embattled former minister is already facing 17-count charge of money laundering before the Lagos Division of the court, along with a former Finance Minister; Nenadi Usman, Danjuma Yusuf and a firm; Joint Trust Dimension Nigeria Limited. They were charg...

Pope not involved in Colombian peace deal- Vatican

Pope Francis Pope Francis has turned down a request to play a role in the peace deal between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group. The Vatican in a statement issued on Wednesday in in Vatican City said that an invitation was sent to his Holiness in early August to appoint a representative to participate in the committee that selected the judges for the talks. The statement said that though Pope Francis supported the peace process, he, however, reiterated that he would not get involved in Colombian peace deal. It said that Pope was praying for the enlightenment of the hearts and minds of those who were called to promote the common good of the Colombian nation. A deal was announced last week, putting an end to five decades of internal conflict between government forces and the FARC rebels. The agreement, which needed to be ratified through a referendum in Oct. 2, would entail setting up a special court to grant amnesties or pu...

Man docked for defiling 9-year-old girl

magistrate-court A 33-year-old man, Godwin Otobo, was on Monday docked at a Surulere Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.For allegedly defiling a nine-year-old girl, ‎Otobo, who lives at No. 10, Borrow Pit St., Sangotedo-Ajah area of Lagos, was said to have defiled the underage girl whose parents also reside in the same compound. The Prosecutor, Sgt. Anthonia Osayande, told the court that the accused committed the offence at about 9.00 p.m. sometimes in September. “The accused defiled the girl in the night when she was fetching water.‎ “The offence contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011,’’ Osayande told the court. The accused pleaded not guilty to the one-count charge of defilement. Ruling on a bail application filed by the accused, Chief Magistrate Ipaye Nwachukwu, granted him bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum. She said one of the sureties must be a property owner in Lagos State, while the other must be a civil servant on grade...