Madrid made it a record-equalling 16 LaLiga wins in succession as James and Karim Benzema scored either side of half-time at the Estadi Cornella-El Prat, making light of superstar forward Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale sitting out the contest.
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The win against Espanyol was Real’s 16th in a row in the competition – setting a club record and drawing level with the best ever sequence in the division, which was posted by Pep Guardiola’s Barca side in 2010-11. This season, though, they’ve started their campaign struggling badly, with just two points through three matches – and their journey won’t get any easier facing a red-hot team in Real Madrid. “The players all want to play, but we’re playing every three days, we have a lot of games, and we can’t risk such an important player”, Real Madrid’s official website quoted Zidane as saying.
For his part, Zidane said after the win at Epanyol on Sunday: “We’re happy”.
Madrid is the only team to have won four straight to start the league.
The pair could be in line to feature in Wednesday’s match against Villarreal at the Santiago Bernabeu, with coach Zinedine Zidane having last week expressed his desire to rotate the squad.
This season’s newcomer, Alexandre Pato, have missed the penalty in the 17th minute, but Nicola Sansone was absolutely brilliant with two goals, penalty won and two key passes.
Inter Milan substitute Ivan Perisic secured a 2-1 win against champion Juventus as the host recorded its first Serie A victory over its archrival in eight games after fighting back from a goal down at the San Siro Sunday.
Juve stays second on nine points, one behind leader Napoli which beat Bologna 3-1 Saturday, while Inter moves up to sixth on seven points. “They are both good”, Zidane said ahead of the game, according to ESPN. “We’ve got quality players and we’re going to carry on this way”.
“Our team knows it is improving, but the difficulty of this game is at the maximum”. Real will be keen to collect yet another three points and climb to top of the La Liga standings. It lifted the trophy in 2004.
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Madrid lost the La Liga title by a single point last season, and Carvajal is sure they will not leave any stone unturned this season.
