Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha bag braces as Barcelona blow away Villarreal
The Poland striker missed a penalty as Barca ran riot.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha both scored twice as Barcelona restored their four-point advantage over rivals Real Madrid at the top of the LaLiga table with a 5-1 demolition of Villarreal.
Lewandowski had Barca 2-0 up within 35 minutes and although Ayoze Perez gave the home side hope, the Polish superstar missed a penalty before Raphinha’s brace and a strike from Pablo Torre eased the Catalan outfit to a sixth successive league win.
Connor Gallagher’s second goal in Spanish football earned Atletico Madrid a point from a 1-1 draw at Rayo Vallecano, who had gone ahead through Isi Palazon.
Gorka Guruzeta’s double either side of an Iago Aspas penalty set the stage for Athletic Bilbao’s 3-1 home win over Celta Vigo, which was cemented by substitute Alvaro Djalo’s strike 10 minutes from time.
Borja Mayoral’s late penalty ensured Getafe and Leganes, who had taken the lead through Jorge Saenz, finished 1-1.
Victor Boniface came off the bench to fire Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen to victory over Wolfsburg in a seven-goal thriller at the BayArena.
Leverkusen, who trailed to Nordi Mukiele’s own goal, went ahead through Florian Wirtz and Jonathan Tah before Sebastiaan Bornauw and Konstantinos Koulierakis restored the visitors’ advantage only for Piero Hincapie to head the hosts level.
However, Boniface struck three minutes into stoppage time after Wolfsburg had seen Yannick Gerhardt sent off for violent conduct to snatch a 4-3 win which sent his side second.
Deniz Undav led the way with a brace as Stuttgart bounced back from Champions League defeat at Real Madrid to rout Borussia Dortmund 5-1.
Undav provided the game’s first and last goals with Ermedin Demirovic, Enzo Millot and substitute El Bilal Toure scoring in between and Serhou Guirassy finding the back of the net for the visitors.
The fare at St Pauli was tame by comparison as the hosts held RB Leipzig to a goalless draw.
In Serie A, defender Matteo Gabbia ended AC Milan’s derby drought as he headed them to a dramatic 2-1 victory at Inter Milan to ease the pressure on boss Paulo Fonseca.
Gabbia’s 89th-minute intervention restored the lead given to the visitors by Christian Pulisic before Federico Dimarco’s first-half equaliser and ended a run of six successive defeats by the Rossoneri’s arch rivals.
Roma brought Udinese’s unbeaten start to the campaign to a juddering halt as Artem Dovbyk and Tommaso Baldanzi scored either side of Paulo Dybala’s penalty to seal a 3-0 win.
Substitute Albert Gudmundsson struck twice from the penalty spot to hand Fiorentina a 2-1 home win over Lazio, who had gone ahead through Mario Gila, while Santiago Castro was Bologna’s matchwinner at Monza after the hosts’ Milan Djuric had cancelled out Kacper Urbanski’s opener.
In Ligue 1, Marseille showed remarkable resilience to win 3-2 at Lyon despite playing for 85 minutes with only 10 men.
Defender Leonardo Balerdi collected two yellow cards inside the first five minutes and could only look on as Duje Caleta-Car headed the home side in front before Pol Lirola and Ulisses Garcia turned the game around.
Rayan Cherki looked to have snatched a point for Lyon in stoppage time only for Jonathan Rowe to take the visitors level on points with Monaco and Paris St Germain at the top of the table.
Goals from Jordan Teze, Eliesse Ben Seghir and Folarin Balogun maintained Monaco’s unbeaten start to the Ligue 1 season as they beat Le Havre 3-1, for whom Daler Kuzyaev scored.
Akor Adams claimed a double as Montpellier scored three times inside 10 second-half minutes to beat Auxerre 3-2.
Adams drew the hosts level after Hamed Traore’s early strike and then after Modibo Sagnan and Ado Onaiwu had traded goals, clinched the points with a 75th-minute winner.
Goals from Mama Balde and substitute Romaine Faivre eased Brest to a 2-0 win over Toulouse, while Angers drew 1-1 with Nantes thanks to Himad Abdelli’s penalty, which came in response to Johann Lepenant’s goal.