Solari’s Real stay in hunt with win against Valencia
Real Madrid’s revival under Santiago Solari appears to be back on track after they moved up to fifth in La Liga with a 2-0 win over Valencia.
An own-goal from Valencia’s Daniel Wass gave Madrid an early lead before Lucas Vazquez added a late second to wrap up their sixth win in seven games under their new coach on Saturday. The 3-0 thrashing by Eibar last weekend, in Solari’s first official game in charge, had placed the depth of the recovery in doubt but this was another assured display to back up an impressive Champions League win over Roma in midweek.
“We did not play well against Eibar but we were good in Rome, and we were really good today,” Solari said. Madrid move two points behind Barcelona and only three adrift of leaders Sevilla, albeit with both still to play on Sunday. Valencia stay 13th.
Gareth Bale, whose league drought stretched to 10 games, played a lead role in an energetic performance before coming off in the second half. Solari confirmed afterwards that Bale had “felt a problem”.
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RONALDO ON THE MARK
Cristiano Ronaldo converted a penalty to cap a dominant 3-0 win for Juventus over Fiorentina as the Italian champions opened up an 11-point lead on top of Serie A.
Ronaldo slotted his 10th goal on Saturday in 14 league games from the spot after 79 minutes, to add to Rodrigo Bentancur’s opener after half an hour in Tuscany with captain Giorgio Chiellini volleying after 69 minutes.
The Portuguese star was substituted just afterwards for the first time this season after receiving a yellow card spending the last 10 minutes on the bench.
Massimiliano Allegri’s side have 40 points from 14 games with second-place Napoli on 29 points before they host Atalanta on Monday.
GNABRY NETS BRACE
Bayern Munich’s Serge Gnabry scored twice to help beat his former club Werder Bremen 2-1 on Saturday as the embattled champions notched up their first win in four Bundesliga matches and moved up to third place.
The result will ease some of the pressure on coach Niko Kovac and players after the club’s underwhelming start to the campaign.
MILAN: BERLIN: