MADRID (AP) — Robert Lewandowski scored a hat trick to help Barcelona gain ground on Real Madrid in the Spanish league on Sunday.
After Madrid was held by Rayo Vallecano to a 0-0 draw — its second consecutive setback following a Champions League loss at Liverpool — Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal led Barcelona to a 4-2 victory at Celta Vigo to move the Catalan club within three points of the lead.
Villarreal, which won 2-0 at Espanyol on Saturday for its third league victory in a row, stayed in third place, five points behind Madrid. Atletico Madrid, which beat Levante 3-1 at home on Saturday, was fourth, six points off the lead.
Barcelona’s offensive struggles continued — it has conceded 16 goals in its last eight matches and hasn’t had a clean sheet since September — but the attack came through again to secure the team’s victory on the road.
The result halted Celta’s five-game winning streak across all tournaments.
It was a frantic first-half in Vigo, with Celta twice rallying after goals by Lewandowski. Yamal put the visitors ahead in first-half stoppage time, and Lewandowski sealed the victory in the 73rd.
Lewandowski, who has missed playing time this season because of injury, hadn’t scored for Barcelona since September in a league win against Real Sociedad.
Sergio Carreira and Borja Iglesias scored for Celta.
Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong was sent off in second-half stoppage time after being shown a second yellow card.
Real Madrid stalls
Madrid’s attack struggled and was scoreless again after having found the net in every match this season until the 1-0 defeat at Liverpool on Tuesday.
“We know where we are,” Madrid coach Xabi Alonso said. “You have to know how to balance the good times and the bad times. It’s a long season. The demands are huge, but we can cope with them and we’re preparing for them.”
Madrid had won 13 of its 15 games in all competitions this season, with the setbacks coming against Liverpool and at Atletico Madrid in a 5-2 loss in the Spanish league in September.
Alonso said it was “one game at a time” for his team.
“After the Anfield game, which is now behind us, today was one of those games that is a bit difficult to bring us back to the level we want to be in,” Alonso said. “In the second half anything could have happened. I don’t put it down to emotional peaks. We want to be very stable in our preparation and in our mentality, because we know that the league is about taking it one game at a time.”
Alonso said his main concern is to make sure the team keeps improving and “engaging in positive self-reflection.”
“This is Madrid and we all know where we are,” he said. “It’s still November, there’s a long way to go. We have to be demanding of ourselves and also prudent.”
Rayo, sitting 12th, had lost 4-0 at Villarreal in its previous league game, but it was coming off consecutive victories in the Europa League and the Copa del Rey.
Other results
Seventh-placed Athletic Bilbao snapped a three-game losing streak across all competitions. It beat Oviedo 1-0 with a 25th-minute goal by Nico Williams, who got past three defenders with a nice run through the left flank before firing into the net from a tough angle.
It was the six straight match without a win for last-placed Oviedo in all competitions.
Vedat Muriqi scored a first-half goal as Mallorca defeated eighth-placed Getafe 1-0 at home. Valencia’s winless streak in the league reached seven games after a 1-1 home draw with fifth-placed Real Betis. Valencia, in 17th place, equalized with a goal from Luis Rioja in the 82nd.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
By TALES AZZONI
AP Sports Writer
