Bayern close in on title and send Hamburg nearer to relegation
BARCELONA: Barcelona went to Malaga without Lionel Messi and won 2-0 to go 11 points clear at the top of La Liga on Saturday.
With Messi remaining in Barcelona after the birth of his son Ciro it was left to Luis Suarez to lead the line and the Uruguayan broke the deadlock on 15 minutes.
Jordi Alba crossed from the left and Suarez rose to head past Roberto Gimenez.
Philippe Coutinho got the second on 28 minutes when he cleverly flicked the ball over the line from Ousmane Dembele’s cross.
Two minutes later Malaga were reduced to 10 men when Samuel Garciawas sent off for a wild lunge at Alba’s ankle.
Both teams had their chances in the second half but Youssef En-nesyri failed to reach a Manuel Iturra cross and Dembele and Coutinho both had shots saved from Roberto.
A delighted Coutinho said: “We did well to get ourselves in front with two early goals and then against 10-men we were able to control the game and play more passes.”
Asked how the team coped without Messi he added: “He is the best in the world, so we always miss him when he’s not there.”
Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde singled out Dembele’s performance adding: “He needs time after such a bad injury. He’s young and it is normal that he goes step-by-step.”
The win leaves Barcelona 11 points clear of secondplaced Atletico Madrid who face Celta Vigo on Sunday.
Earlier on Saturday Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to help third-placed Real Madrid win 2-1 at Eibar.
Ronaldo now has 18 league goals this season and has scored 17 goals in the last 10 games in all competitions.
Madrid took the lead on 35 minutes after Ronaldo finished past Marko Dmitrovic from Luka Modric’s fine pass.
Eibar levelled five minutes into the second half with Ivan Ramis heading in Pedro Leon’s cross.
But Ronaldo had the last word with a bullet header from a Dani Carvajal cross six minutes from time.
Asked about Ronaldo, Madrid midfielder Casemiro said: “We have to just enjoy him. He’s the best in the world and it’s a pleasure to play alongside him.” Zinedine Zidane added: “He’s from another galaxy.” The coach was delighted with the win after the Champions League victory against Paris Saint-germain in midweek.
“It means a lot to win here after what we did in Paris. In the first 20 minutes we couldn’t get out of our half but we came through,” he said.
Also on Saturday Sevilla lost 2-0 at home to Valencia, perhaps waving goodbye to their hopes of the top-four finish that guarantees Champions League football next season.
Rodrigo Moreno scored both the goals for fourthplaced Valencia, who are now 11 points clear of fifthplaced Sevilla.
Moreno said: “Nothing is decided yet but this was a fundamental victory for us over our closest rival.”
Elsewhere, Levante beat Getafe 1-0 with a goal from Coke 11 minutes from time. BERLIN: Bayern Munich closed in on a sixth successive title and sent Hamburg SV closer to a first-ever relegation from the Bundesliga with a 6-0 rout of the beleaguered Dinos on Saturday.
Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick and missed a penalty as he reached 100 Bundesliga goals for Bayern in an embarrassingly onesided match which was over as a contest after 20 minutes.
It was a sadly familiar story for Hamburg who have conceded 50 goals in their last eight Bundesliga games at Bayern, including two 6-0 defeats, two 8-0 losses and one 9-2 reverse.
Leaders Bayern stayed 20 points clear of Schalke 04, who won 1-0 at Mainz 05 on Friday, with eight games to go and are only two wins away from clinching the title.
They could even wrap it up next week if they win at RB Leipzig and other results go in their favour.
Hamburg, the only ever-present team in the Bundesliga’s 55-year history, will now have to pull off a great escape to keep their proud record intact. They are 17th in the 18-team table and seven points adrift of Mainz in the relegation playoff spot.
“That’s not the football I want to see,” Hamburg coach Bernd Hollerbach said.
“We saw what happens when you give Bayern bit of space. You can always lose to Bayern, but I didn’t like the manner of our defeat.”
Hamburg held out for eight minutes before Gotoku Sakai’s tackle on Arjen Robben succeeded only in sending the ball to the feet of Franck Ribery and the Frenchman rounded Christian Mathenia to open the scoring.
Four minutes later, Robben found Joshua Kimmich in space on the right and his cross was headed in by Lewandowski for the second.
It was all too easy for Bayern who added a third in the 19th minute. Jerome Boateng picked out David Alaba with a long pass forward and the Austrian side-footed the ball into the path of Lewandowski for the Pole to score first-time.
Robben got in on the act in the 55th minute with a left-foot shot from the edge of the area and Ribery slalomed his way through the Hamburg defence for his second and Bayern’s fifth.
Lewandowksi missed a chance for his hat-trick as he sent his penalty over in the 86th minute but he made amends when the hosts were awarded another spot-kick shortly afterwards.
Bayern have 66 points with Schalke 04 on 46 while Bayer Leverkusen moved up to third with 44 by beating Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0 with goals from Lucas Alario and Julian Brandt.
Hoffenheim added to VFL Wolfsburg’s problems with a 3-0 win which left their opponents in 15th place and ahead of Mainz only on goal difference.
Nico Schulz and Serge Gnabry scored for seventh-placed Hoffenheim before Joshua Guilavogui put through his own net.
Michael Gregoritsch scored twice to lead Augsburg to a 3-1 win at Hannover 96, who replied with a longrange effort from Salif Sane, while Hertha Berlin and Freiburg played out a goalless draw.