CR7, Bale, Benzema strike in Real victory – Monaco gate-crashed PSG title party

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MADRID, March 21, (Agencies): Real Madrid forwards Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo were all on target in a 4-0 win over Sevilla that took Zinedine Zidane’s side within one point of second-placed city rivals Atletico Madrid in La Liga on Sunday.

Real Madrid striker Benzema returned after three weeks out with a hamstring injury and opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a brilliant half-volley while Keylor Navas preserved the lead by saving Kevin Gameiro’s penalty before the bereak.

Ronaldo also missed a spot kick in the second half before Gameiro had an effort harshly ruled out for offside.

Ronaldo pounced from close range after 64 minutes to wrap up the points and made a gesture of apology to the home fans, while Bale netted two minutes later and substitute Jese added a late fourth for a scoreline that somewhat flattered the home side.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane believes his side can still salvage a disappointing season at home and abroad should Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale remain fit for the remainder of the campaign.

“After a performance like that from the players, I can only be satisfied,” said Zidane. “Playing like this we can do great things. The players know that, but in football every game is different so we have to play with the same intensity and commitment.”

Madrid still have high hopes of landing an 11th European Cup after drawing Wolfsburg in the last eight of the Champions League.

However, their immediate task is to end Barca’s 39-game unbeaten run in all competitions to at least put a little pressure on the European champions for the final weeks of the season.

“It will be a special match because all Barca-Madrid matches are special,” added Zidane.

“Now for us there is the opportunity to continue what we are doing, our progression.

“We know very well we are ready. It will be a big game, a game where two great teams will clash, which is good for football.”

Monaco ruined Paris Saint-Germain’s Ligue 1 title celebrations as a clinical second-half performance gave the principality side a 2-0 victory at the Parc des Princes on Sunday.

PSG wrapped up a fourth consecutive league title in record time with eight matches to spare by thrashing Troyes 9-0 a week ago, but they were uncharacteristically flat in the capital.

After a drab opening 45 minutes it was the visitors who turned on the style, as Vagner Love’s fourth goal for the club gave them a deserved 65th-minute lead.

A David Luiz error gave Monaco a penalty that was coolly converted by Fabinho just three minutes later, as PSG slumped to just a second league defeat of the season, and a first at home since May 2014.

The victory is a timely one for Leonardo Jardim’s Monaco in the race for the top three and the Champions League, as they stay second in the table and now have the cushion of a six-point gap back to fourth-placed Lyon.

“This is a very important victory, but in getting this the team has actually only maintained our gap to our competitors,” Jardim said.

“Paris is a big team, one of the top four in Europe, and they could win the Champions League. My players played a great game. In football, you have not won or lost before the match, everything is played on the pitch.”

PSG manager Laurent Blanc selected an attacking line-up, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, Lucas Moura and Angel Di Maria all starting on a night when the home fans expected to party.

But they started slowly, and the hosts’ frustration at their lacklustre opening half an hour was clear, as Cavani thumped the turf in anger after ballooning an acrobatic effort well wide.

PSG improved in the minutes before half-time, with Cavani heading a Marquinhos cross wastefully off target when totally unmarked.

The visitors grew in confidence in the second period and home keeper Kevin Trapp had to beat clear Fabinho’s drive after a mistake by Luiz, before the German also had to save well at his near post from Thomas Lemar.

PSG were pleasing the crowd with plenty of neat tricks and flicks, but rarely looked like breaking their opponents down.

Napoli can keep on dreaming of a first scudetto in more than a quarter of a century, said striker Gonzalo Higuain after taking his Serie A goals tally to 29 in 30 games with a brace in a 3-1 win over Genoa on Sunday.

Napoli, chasing a first Serie A title since the heady days of Diego Maradona in 1990, had slipped to six points off the pace after Juventus cruised to a 4-1 derby win at Torino.

But despite conceding a 10th minute opener to Tomas Rincon and going on to spurn a series of chances before Higuain levelled on 51 minutes, the hosts went on to dominate a lively finale with Higuain hitting his second on 81 minutes and late substitute Omar El Kaddouri breaking his Serie A duck at the death.

Despite Maurizio Sarri’s men keeping pace with Juventus as the Turin giants chase their own dream of winning a fifth consecutive title for the first time since 1935, title talk has been frowned upon for most of this season at Napoli.

Higuain admits the Azzurri still have “eight finals” to play in the run-in, but he told Sky Sport: “It was a really difficult game for us, but these are three really important points. Now, we can keep on dreaming.”

He added: “But we have eight finals ahead of us and we have to give it everything if we are to try and make it happen.”

Genoa remained a threat after Higuain’s leveller, but Higuain twice came agonisingly close before putting the hosts ahead near the end, sending the stadium into raptures when he collected from Marek Hamsik again just inside the area to curl the ball around several players and inside Mattia Perin’s far post.

The Argentine’s 29th goal of the campaign now leaves him just six behind Gunnar Nordahl’s record of 35 goals in a 20-team championship, set with AC Milan in 1950.

But with scudetto talk banned at Napoli, Higuain is also keen not to jinx his own chance of making Serie A history.

“Scoring is my job and I work for the city and for this team,” added Higuain.

Napoli should have added more in a lively finale, but Manolo Gabbiadini toe-poked Hamsik’s long ball from midfield just over on the volley.

Higuain made way for El Kaddouri in the closing minutes and the Moroccan hit Napoli’s third in the first minute of added time.

Napoli remain second behind Juventus after the champions comfortably beat Torino 4-1 away in the Turin derby.

It was the champions’ 20th consecutive game unbeaten in a run that includes 19 wins and a draw and Napoli coach Sarri was quick to brush off questions about their chances of closing the gap: “I don’t know if we can catch them and it doesn’t interest me much.

“We’re taking it game by game, winning and making our fans happy. Above us sits a team that have just collected 58 out of a possible 60 points.

“We’re just three points behind them, and that makes me happy.”

At the Stadio Olimpico, Juve goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon became the record holder for the longest unbeaten run in Serie A with a new total of 973 minutes.

He overtook Juve legend Dino Zoff (903) last week and surpassed record-holder Sebastiono Rossi’s 929-minute tally four minutes into the game.

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