Football
Real Madrid celebrate victory over Bilbao thanks to two Rodrygo goals and take a comfortable lead
Real Madrid managed to beat Athletic Bilbao on Sunday night and lead the Spanish La Liga by a large margin. Two goals were scored by Brazilian winger Rodrygo, who was man of the match.
Real Madrid managed to beat Athletic Bilbao on Sunday night and lead the Spanish La Liga by a large margin. Two goals were scored by Brazilian winger Rodrygo, who was man of the match.
Bilbao started actively, but Real Madrid had the first big chance. After a long pass, Rodrygo found the ball, dribbled it towards goal and fired as best he could from behind the whitewash. His shot hit the crossbar and the Real fans were able to celebrate.
The next big chance came late in the first half when Aurélien Tchouaméni pounced on a centre and sent the ball just wide of the three posts with his head. Shortly after returning to the field in the second half, Brahim Díaz came close to scoring. But his shot only grazed the bar.
Real then claimed a penalty kick after a foul on Rodrygo, but the assistant referee wrongly signalled offside. The situation was reviewed and although it was not offside, VAR ruled the tackle illegal.
Real did, however, get a second goal, again by Rodrygo. After a counter-attack, he ran at goal, hooked the ball, put the defender and goalkeeper down and sent the ball safely into the net.
Athletic didn’t give up and raced to reduce the score. Iker Muniain found himself in a shooting situation shortly after his arrival on the pitch. But his shot was covered by goalkeeper Lunin.
As the game wore on, Bilbao failed to challenge the Madrid defence, which was reinforced at the very end by Eder Militao, who returns from a six-month knee injury.
Real Madrid won 2-0 and thanks to this result they currently have an eight-point lead over second-placed Barcelona. There are still eight games left in the season, but Los Blancos should keep it in sight
Source: La Liga