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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2016 SPORTS Bale, Ronaldo miss Espanyol trip as Real target record BARCELONA: Real Madrid will be without talisman throat and we’re not going to risk him,” Zidane told Real equalled a club record of 15 consecutive appointing return to action from the Frenchman Cristiano Ronaldo and record signing Gareth Bale a news conference on Saturday ahead of the trip to wins set in 1960/61 last week against Osasuna and against Sporting following a hip injury. “I’ve said for their trip to Espanyol today, where they aim to Barcelona to face Espanyol. “We have games every victory today will see coach Zinedine Zidane match two or three times that James is training very well equal Barcelona’s record of 16 consecutive La Liga three days and we can’t take risks with such an the 16 straight wins set by Pep Guardiola’s and he’s going to play, he’s important for the team wins. Ronaldo scored the equaliser in Real’s thrilling important player. Bale received a strong knock to Barcelona in the 2010-11 season. Real have won and I think he’s really motivated,” Zidane said. “He late turnaround to beat Sporting Lisbon 2-1 on the hip on Wednesday and he’s not going to travel their last three league visits to Espanyol, Ronaldo wants to play like everyone else and he’s going to Wednesday but has been ruled out with the flu, either.” “This is a group, we have important players scoring five goals in a 6-0 rout last season. Zidane contribute a lot.” while Bale is still carrying a hip injury he sustained so when a player has something wrong it’s better said Ronaldo’s absence would see out of favour “Benzema is fine,” added the coach. against Sporting. for someone else to come in and do well, we always Colombian international James Rodriguez return to “The other day was his first start for a while and “Cristiano will not travel with us, he has a sore have to think about the team.” the side, and he backed Karim Benzema after a dis- we’ll see what happens tomorrow.” — Reuters Cavani hits 4 goals as PSG thrashes Caen 6-0 PARIS: Edinson Cavani shrugged off his the visitors’ squad in Normandy. Champions League woes to score four goals Damien Da Silva headed narrowly wide in the first half as Paris Saint-Germain for Caen before PSG opened the scoring in romped to a one-sided 6-0 win at Caen in the 12th minute, Cavani turning the ball in Ligue 1 on Friday. The Uruguayan, charged at the back post after Lucas had dummied a with filling Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s sizeable low Maxwell cross from the left. boots this season, was criticised for missing The champions then won a penalty mid- several gilt-edged chances in PSG’s 1-1 way through the first half when Lucas was draw with Arsenal on Tuesday, despite scor- brought down in the box by Syam Ben ing the opener against the Premier League Youssef and Cavani stepped up to beat club inside 42 seconds. Remy Vercoutre from 12 yards. But he hit back by scoring four times in the space of 35 first-half minutes at the BIGGEST VICTORY Stade Michel-d’Ornano as PSG claimed their Vercoutre saved from a powerful Lucas most convincing win so far under new strike but Cavani got in front of Ben Youssef coach Unai Emery. to convert another low Maxwell cross and Lucas Moura and Jean-Kevin Augustin complete his hat-trick-his third in Ligue 1 — added further goals after the break as PSG on 38 minutes. ended a run of three games without a win His and PSG’s fourth came in stoppage in all competitions and went top of the time at the end of the first period as he table on goal difference from Monaco and once again applied a first-time finish after Nice ahead of the rest of the weekend’s being set up by Meunier. That was Cavani’s games. eighth goal for club and country this season “We have confidence in Edinson. When but it was also his last act of the evening, a he has five chances and only scores one, like slight thigh strain meaning he was replaced on Tuesday, I tell him to be calm,” said by Jese Rodriguez for the second half. Emery. “For me, the most important thing is Augustin, another substitute, set up that he creates chances. On Tuesday they Lucas to smash in the fifth goal and then didn’t go in, today they did, but he played found the target himself with 12 minutes the same game.” With this game coming just remaining as Paris recorded their biggest 72 hours after Paris faced Arsenal in their victory since beating the same opponents Champions League opener, Emery opted to by the same score in April. Monaco, fresh LEGANES: Barcelona’s Argentinian forward Lionel Messi (C) vies with Leganes’ midfielder Unai Lopez during the Spanish league football match leave Thiago Silva and Marco Verratti on the from winning at Tottenham Hotspur in the CD Leganes CF vs FC Barcelona at the Butarque municipal stadium in Leganes yesterday. — AFP bench at kick-off. Champions League on Wednesday, can Thomas Meunier replaced Serge Aurier reclaim top spot when they host at right-back but Alphonse Areola kept his Rennes.Nice visit Montpellier on Sunday Barca win easily at Leganes, place in goal at the expense of Kevin Trapp before Marseille host Lyon in the game of while Hatem Ben Arfa was again left out of the weekend. — AFP Atletico thrash Sporting BARCELONA: Barcelona’s attacking trio of Lionel Barcelona, beaten 2-1 by newcomers Alaves them well and I’m proud of the players for that,” Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar were all on target last weekend in their first loss at the Nou Camp added Luis Enrique. “With a three man defence as the champions roared back into life in La Liga since April 17, now have nine points from their they could press us very high, but we’re Barca with a dominant 5-1 victory at promoted first four La Liga games. and we assume these risks.” Leganes yesterday. They join Real, who can go clear again when Atletico kickstarted their league campaign Atletico Madrid strikers Antoine Griezmann, they play at Espanyol on Sunday, at the league’s last week with a 4-0 win at Celta Vigo and raced Fernando Torres and Kevin Gameiro also all summit, while Atletico are one point behind. out of the traps against Sporting, Gameiro feed- scored in a 5-0 thrashing of Sporting Gijon to ing Griezmann to tap in the opener in the second warm up for next Wednesday’s visit to the Nou TACTICS minute before curling in another in the fifth. Camp. “This is an important victory against a team Griezmann then cut inside to lash in the third Messi sidefooted in a simple cross from Suarez that we knew would cause us problems in bring- goal in the 31st before being replaced by Torres, to strike the opening goal for Barca after 15 min- ing the ball out. We exploited the space well and and the homegrown Atletico hero further utes and returned the favour for the Uruguayan we were very active from the start,” said Luis delighted the Vicente Calderon by rounding off to nudge in the second in the 31st. Enrique. the victory with two late strikes, including an Neymar stretched Barca’s lead to three goals After squad rotations backfired against Alaves, injury time penalty. on the stroke of half-time, tapping in another lay Luis Enrique picked a similar team to the one that “We knew we were doing the right things to off from Suarez, before Messi got his second from battered Celtic 7-0 in the Champions League on score goals,” Torres told BeIN Sports after a the penalty spot 10 minutes into the second half. Tuesday in Barca’s biggest ever win in European rewarding afternoon for Atletico’s strikeforce. Rafinha rounded off the most comfortable of soccer’s top competition. “It’s good that all the forwards contributed Barca victories with a curled finish in the 64th, Barca played with a back three when in pos- with the goals and that I could do that from CAEN: Paris Saint-Germain’s Uruguayan forward Edinson Cavani celebrates after although Gabriel Appelt salvaged a goal for the session, switching to a 4-4-2 shape without the the bench. It’s never a good time to visit scoring a goal during the French L1 football match between Caen (SMC) and Paris Madrid minnows in the 80th with a free-kick ball. Barcelona but now we can go there feeling Saint-Germain (PSG), on Friday, at the Michel d’Ornano stadium in Caen, northwest- whipped into the top corner. “Our tactics brought risks but we deployed confident.” — Reuters ern France. — AFP Carlos Bacca wins Bayern Munich toils to win, ‘Battle of Colombians’ Dortmund flying in Bundesliga as Milan sink Samp BERLIN: Bayern Munich conceded for the first time Dortmund led only 1-0 at the break despite three games after Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez and labored to maintain its winning start to the dominating. struck a penalty against the post with two minutes MILAN: AC Milan striker Carlos Linetty then set up Edgar Barreto for Bundesliga while Borussia Dortmund underlined Then Adrian Ramos doubled the lead, and remaining. Bacca came off the bench to win the a drive that a diving Donnarumma its title credentials with another rout yesterday.