REAL HEROES
Asensio, Vazquez earn praise for ‘dirty work’ against Betis
REAL Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane praised wingers Lucas Vazquez and Marco Asensio for their defensive work as well as their attacking exploits after his side beat Real Betis 5-3 in La Liga on Sunday.
Both were left out of the starting line-up in the Champions League last 16, first leg against Paris Saint Germain but had a big impact from the bench, with Asensio providing the spark for Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcelo’s goals in the 3-1 win.
Asensio got Real off to an ideal start against Betis by heading in on the rebound and then gave his side the lead again in the second half, after Betis had gone in front before halftime and captain Sergio Ramos had levelled for Real.
“They always deserve to play more because when it’s their turn to do the dirty work they do it with character,” Zidane said.
“But it’s not just the dirty work, it’s everything they do, from playing up and down the wing, to opening up the pitch, to defending. They are playing very well at the moment.”
Asensio, who joined from Mallorca in 2014, had a barnstorming start to the season but faded out of contention when Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema returned from suspension and injury problems.
Sunday’s game was only his 11th start in the league this season and after his brace took him to six goals for the campaign, the Spain international said he needed to play more regularly to show his potential.
“I think I’m having a good season but when you don’t participate as much you can’t prove yourself in certain ways,” Asensio said. “In the end you have to take advantage of the minutes you get on the pitch and now things are going better. I hope to continue playing this way.”
Second-placed Atletico Madrid earlier won 2-0 at home to Athletic Bilbao as they cut the gap behind leaders Barcelona back to seven points.
• ROME: Napoli matched Juventus with a 1-0 win over SPAL on Sunday to regain top spot in Italy from the champions who had earlier won the Turin derby by the same score.
The two Serie A pacesetters both bounced back from European setbacks to claim their ninth consecutive league wins.
Napoli — shocked 3-1 at home by RB Leipzig in the Europa League — stayed top with a narrow home victory at their San Paulo Stadium and injury-depleted Juventus — held at home by Tottenham in the Champions League — continued their derby domination of Torino 1-0.
“I expected a response after the Europa League,” said Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri, but added his side should have scored more.
“We became too lazy and wanted to walk the ball into the net. We were acting 10 minutes from time as if we were 3-0 up, not 1-0.”
Napoli have 66 points after 25 games with Juventus one point behind. AS Roma moved third 15 points behind the top two with a 2-0 win at Udinese Saturday as Inter Milan fell back into crisis with a 2-0 loss in Genoa.
In the battle for Europe, Giacomo Bonaventura scored on 14 minutes as AC Milan continued their revival under Gennaro Gattuso, beating Sampdoria 1-0 to pull level with the side from Genoa in sixth with 41 points.
• BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund’s gifted attacking midfielder Marco Reus scored his first goal since returning from an eight-month injury layoff to earn a 1-0 win at Borussia Moenchengladbach in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Dortmund climbed to second place with 40 points from 23 games, though they will be overhauled if RB Leipzig, who are two points behind, won at Eintracht Frankfurt late yesterday. Bayern Munich have a 19 point lead at the top.
Reus is hoping that a good run of form can earn him a place in Germany’s squad for this year’s World Cup, having missed out on the tournament in Brazil in 2014 through another injury.
“I didn’t hit it well. I really wanted to shoot it further to the left, towards the top corner, but the important thing is that the ball went in there,” he said.
VfB Stuttgart striker Mario Gomez, also hoping for a World Cup call-up by Germany, scored his second goal since returning to the club to secure a 1-0 win at Augsburg and pull them away from the relegation zone.
• PARIS: Florian Thauvin extended his brilliant run of goalscoring form to earn Marseille a 1-0 win over a resurgent Bordeaux on Sunday and reinforce their push for Champions League football next season.
Thauvin headed in a corner from Dimitri Payet on 35 minutes at the Velodrome to match last season’s career-best return of 15 league goals and keep Marseille within a point of Monaco in second.
Rudi Garcia’s team have lost just once in Ligue 1 dating back to September going into next Sunday’s showdown at bitter rivals and runaway leaders Paris Saint Germain.
Marseille will then meet PSG again at the Parc des Princes just three days later in the quarterfinals of the French Cup.
Defeat for Bordeaux ended a four-match winning streak and marked the first suffered under new coach Gustavo Poyet, who replaced the sacked Jocelyn Gourvennec last month.
Lyon fell further behind their rivals for a Champions League berth after surrendering a twogoal lead a 2-2 draw at struggling Lille.
Lyon looked the side most capable of troubling Paris SaintGermain after beating the league leaders in January, but a subsequent rotten run of form has left them six points adrift of thirdplaced Marseille.
Nice captain Dante scored his first Ligue 1 goal for the club in a 1-1 draw with Claudio Ranieri’s Nantes to snap a four-match losing run.
The result bumped Nantes back up to fifth, while Mario Balotelli’s Nice — who lost 3-2 to Lokomotiv Moscow in the Europa League on Thursday — are ninth after halting their recent slide.
PSG defeated Strasbourg 5-2 on Saturday to remain perfect at home this campaign, while second-placed Monaco thumped Dijon 4-0 on Friday.