London: Nacho and Marco Asensio made back-to-back strikes within four second-half minutes half to help Real Madrid claim a 2-0 win over Cadiz and cut leader Barcelona’s lead to 10 points in La Liga yesterday.

Defending champion Real kept their slim title chances on the hook by crawling up to 62 points, ten points behind Barcelona who play at Getafe yesterday. Atletico Madrid are third on the table with 57 points and will host Almeria on yesterday. Madrid controlled the opponents throughout the game, possessing the ball 70 per cent of the time, and created several chances including three shots that hit the post and a few critical stops by Cadiz goalkeeper David Gil.

However, the visitors opened the scoring only in the 72nd minute when defender Nacho received a pass from Aurelien Tchouameni and slotted a powerful long-range shot into the bottom left corner.

Four minutes later, Asensio doubled the side’s lead by netting the ball from the edge of the box into the bottom left corner.

Earlier, Real Betis breezed past Espanyol 3-1 to go fifth on 45 points after Ayoze Perez, Juan Miranda and William Carvalho scored goals each.

Athletic Club beat Real Sociedad 2-0 at home, thanks to a sensational brace by Inaki Williams.

Valladolid, on the other hand, stunned Villareal 2-1 on the latter’s home ground after first-half strikes from Salim Amallah and Jawad El Yamiq.

Published in The Daily National Courier, April, 17 2023

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