LAST UPDATE | 2 Apr 2023
KARIM BENZEMA scored a stunning hat-trick in a seven-minute salvo as Real Madrid thumped Real Valladolid 6-0 on Sunday in La Liga.
The champions, second, sit 12 points behind leaders Barcelona after the Catalans beat Elche on Saturday, with 11 games remaining each.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side warmed up for their Copa del Rey semi-final clash on Wednesday with their arch-rivals in style by dismantling the helpless visitors, 16th and a point above the drop zone.
Rodrygo Goes opened the scoring early on, before Benzema’s hat-trick, including a spectacular acrobatic effort, with Marco Asensio netting the fifth in the second half and Lucas Vazquez adding another late on.
Rodrygo had another goal ruled out for handball by Vinicius Junior, who set up two of Benzema’s strikes, as Madrid ran riot in the spring sunshine at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Rodrygo slotted home the opener after 22 minutes after being teed up by Asensio to open the floodgates.
Vinicius’s cross allowed Benzema to net the second after 29 minutes, and four minutes later, the Brazilian fed his French strike partner again and the forward curled home from the edge of the box.
Benzema completed his hat-trick after 36 minutes when Rodrygo crossed and he pulled off an impressive overhead effort from inside the six-yard box for his 14th goal of the season in La Liga.
The 35-year old overtook Getafe’s Enes Unal to become the division’s second top goalscorer, behind Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski on 17.
Madrid slowed down in the second half, with Belgian winger Eden Hazard making his first league appearance since September as a substitute for Benzema.
After Rodrygo set up Asensio to blast home from inside the area, Hazard teed up Lucas Vazquez to round off the rout in toppage time.
Vinicius was also given a rest ahead of the Clasico clash midweek, as Madrid sharpened their teeth.
Having failed to trouble Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the 1-0 first leg defeat in March, Los Blancos look far more dangerous now.
In Italy, Lazio will hold on to second place in Serie A after winning comfortably 2-0 at Monza on Sunday and cutting Napoli’s huge league lead to 16 points, while Roma moved into the Champions League places with a 3-0 success over Sampdoria.
Pedro’s low finish in the 13th minute and a sensational free-kick from Sergej Milinkovic-Savic 10 minutes after half-time gave Lazio their fifth win in six league matches.
Maurizio Sarri’s side are now five points ahead of third-placed Inter, who were beaten by Fiorentina on Saturday, after their sixth straight clean sheet in Italy’s top flight.
AC Milan can cut that deficit to four if the reigning champions pull off a surprise win at Napoli in Sunday’s late match and move above local rivals Inter.
Napoli can take another step towards their first Serie A title since 1990 but will be without injured star striker Victor Osimhen.
Milinkovic-Savic’s goal was his first since scoring against Milan in January and his 65th for Lazio, making him the club’s highest ever foreign goalscorer.
Level on 50 points with Inter are Roma, who overcame 10-man Sampdoria in Rome thanks to Georginio Wijnaldum’s header six minutes into the second half and two late strikes from Paulo Dybala and Stephan El Shaarawy.
Wijnaldum, who also hit the post in the first half, helped ensure Roma will be in the top four with 10 matches remaining — as long as Milan don’t beat Napoli — with his second Serie A goal.
Netherlands midfielder Wijnaldum struck five minutes after Jeison Murillo was sent off for two bookable offences and then won the penalty, from which Dybala scored his 10th league goal of the season with a minute remaining.
El Shaarawy swept home a fine stoppage-time finish to hand Samp their 19th defeat of the season and leave them 10 points behind Spezia, who sit just above the relegation zone and drew 1-1 with fellow strugglers Salernitana.
Eldor Shomurodov dinked in Spezia’s leveller with 20 minutes remaining after Mattia Caldara’s own goal just before the break.
Daniel Maldini and Albin Ekdal both struck the woodwork in a frantic finish for Spezia who sit six points above Verona and the drop zone.
Earlier, Bologna boosted their hopes of European football next season with a 3-0 win over Udinese.
Thiago Motta’s Bologna are eighth on 40 points, seven points from the Conference League spot currently held by sixth-placed Roma who host struggling Sampdoria on Sunday evening.
That place in Europe’s third-tier club competition will drop down to seventh if a team already qualified for continental football wins the Italian Cup.
Of the six teams currently in the European places, Inter Milan are the only one in the semi-finals of the Italian Cup.
Bologna haven’t featured in a major European competition since reaching the third round of the UEFA Cup in 1999.
