Madrid: Veteran celebrity strikers Robert Lewandowski and Karim Benzema each hit doubles on Sunday in contrasting victories for Barcelona and Los angeles Liga leaders Actual Madrid.

Lewandowski scored two times for the second one sport in a row as Jules Kounde made his debut as Barcelona cruised previous Valladolid 4-0.

Within the overdue sport on Sunday, Actual Madrid struggled for 88 mins at Espanyol. With the rankings tied and time working out, Benzema put Actual forward prior to sealing a 3-1 victory after 10 eventful added mins.

Actual stored their very best begin to the season and climbed again to the highest of the desk on 9 issues after 3 video games, forward of Actual Betis on objective distinction.

Barcelona rose to 3rd, two issues additional again.

“To have Lewandowski for your workforce is a blessing,” stated Barca trainer Xavi Hernandez.

“He’s an peculiar participant. Impressive. A herbal chief. It’s a blessing to have him with us, it’s marvellous.

“He’s a type, a born employee. He’s humble, he works for the workforce, he is helping the training personnel, he makes the adaptation.”

On the Camp Nou, Xavi passed Kounde his first get started after the membership used to be in the end in a position to sign up the France defender they signed from Sevilla closing month for a reported 50 million euros ($49.8 mn).

Lewandowski hit the publish with an early header.

Pedri then noticed the run of Raphinha in in the back of however the Brazilian used to be thwarted via goalkeeper Jordi Masip, who used to be smartly crushed moments later when Ousmane Dembele’s venomous shot clipped the crossbar.

Barca’s drive advised after 24 mins as Raphinha whipped in a teasing go which a playing Lewandowski stabbed house.

A marauding Dembele examined Masip from vary, after which created the second one for Pedri via rolling a perfectly-weighted ball for the midfielder to bury at the stroke of part time.

Lewandowski all however put the sport past achieve on 64 mins, working onto a go from Dembele and cleverly backheeling previous Masip with the assistance of a deflection off Joaquin Fernandez.

Valladolid just about pulled one again however Marc-Andre ter Stegen stored smartly from Oscar Plano and Kounde caught out a leg at the line to stay out the follow-up effort from Roque Mesa.

Barca grabbed a fourth in stoppage time as Roberto volleyed house after Lewandowski used to be denied a hat-trick after Masip, a former Barcelona participant, tipped his shot onto the bar.

‘We had been reasonably gradual’

Within the overdue sport, Vinicius Junior ran directly to a pointy diagonal go within the twelfth minute to slip the ball into the a ways nook and provides Actual the lead.

Espanyol fought again. Joselu levelled after 43 mins. He burst thru and when Thibaut Courtois stored his first thump at objective and the ball bounced off Eder Militao, the Espanyol striker beat each Actual avid gamers to the ball and scuffed it in.

Each groups had probabilities in the second one part prior to Benzema, as so ceaselessly within the closing yr, determined the sport. After a quiet sport, he discovered area on the a ways publish with two mins left, met Rodrygo’s go and volleyed house from cose vary.

Deep into frantic added time, Espanyol goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte, charged out of his field to prevent a Actual assault won a crimson card for a nasty on Dani Ceballos.

Benzema fired house the unfastened kick.

“We had been reasonably gradual,” stated Actual trainer Carlo Ancelotti. “We had problem managing the depth of the fit.”

Villarreal dropped their first issues of the season in a 0-0 draw at Getafe as Unai Emery’s facet noticed the award of a penalty overturned following a VAR assessment within the loss of life levels.