Thaindian News

Madrid, Sep 25 (IANS) Barcelona Football Club continued to show they are the team to beat in the La Liga with a 5-0 thrashing of Atletico Madrid Saturday night.

Atletico Madrid arrived at the Camp Nou stadium with strong hopes of winning the game after two 4-0 wins in which striker Radamal Falcao scored five goals.

However, they soon received a reality check as David Villa put Barcelona ahead after nine minutes. Joao Miranda was unlucky to double Barca’s lead with an own goal after 15 minutes, before Lionel Messi popped up the third of the night 10 minutes later, the Xinhua reported.

Messi scored a fine solo goal 12 minutes from time as Barcelona looked totally in control.

The Argentinean finished off his hat-trick in injury time with a powerful left foot shot from a narrow angle. It was his eighth goal of the season and Barcelona moved into second place in the league table with another impressive display.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored two penalties as Real Madrid defeated Rayo Vallecano 6-2 in the Santaigo Bernabeu Stadium.

Rayo took the lead after just 12 seconds, thanks to a goal from Michu and there were nerves in the Bernabeu until Ronaldo equalised five minutes from the break and Gonzalo Higuain put Real Madrid ahead on the stroke of halftime.

Ronaldo’s first penalty of the night made it 3-1 after 51 minutes, before Michu’s second goal of the night brought Rayo right back into the game.

The visitors will have thought they had a chance of taking a point when Angel de Maria was sent off shortly afterwards, but Rafael Varene’s first goal for Madrid made the game safe and a late goal from Karim Benzema and another Ronaldo penalty gave Madrid a more comfortable result than various periods of the game could have indicated.

Valencia lost their unbeaten start to the season with a 1-0 defeat to Sevilla, who are yet to lose a match this season. Freddy Kanoute was again Sevilla’s hero in a game which saw Petr Trochovski and Julien Escude sent off for the home side and Aritz Aduriz shown red for the visitors.

Athletic Club Bilbao have still to win a game this season after their 1-1 draw against Villarreal: Igor Gabilondo opened the scoring for the home side, but Nilmar levelled soon after halftime.