Author – Amrit Santlani
It was a dramatic night in La Liga, with the two Madrid clubs in action after La Liga winners Barcelona dropped points earlier against Real Sociedad. Atlético Madrid moved up to second place with a comfortable 3-0 win over Osasuna, but Real Madrid were beaten 1-0 as Vinicius Junior was shown a straight red card after racist chants against the Brazilian winger. Meanwhile, Sevilla drew 0-0 at home to Real Betis. In Italy, newly crowned Serie A champions Napoli beat Inter Milan 3-1, while Lazio beat Udinese 1-0.
Yannick Carrasco, Saul Niguez and Angel Correa scored the goals for Atlético, who beat Osasuna with ease, while rivals Madrid suffered their second consecutive defeat after losing to Manchester City in the Champions League. The match was marred by unpleasant scenes: Valencia fans chanted racist slurs at Vinícius and the Brazilian had a heated argument with several opposition players. Hugo Durro allegedly choked Vini, and the 21-year-old shrugged off the Valencia player, but received his first career red card for his troubles. Diego Lopez’s individual goal was enough for the hosts to secure the three points.
Rayo Vallecano were beaten 2-1 by Espanyol, with former Madrid striker Raul de Tomas’ penalty sandwiched between goals from Sergi Darder, who opened the scoring, and Nico Melamed, who scored the winner. Meanwhile, Sevilla failed to beat Real Betis.
In Italy, Inter dropped to fourth place and Lazio climbed to third, as the race for Champions League places rages on. André-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Gianluca Gaetano got their names on the scoresheet, while Romelu Lukaku continued his good form by scoring a consolation goal.
Lecce and Spezia drew 0-0, Torino drew 1-1 with Fiorentina, with Antonio Sanabria cancelling out Luka Jovic’s goal, while Ciro Immobile scored the only goal in Lazio’s 1-0 win over Udinese.