Big wins for Barcelona, Real Madrid

Real Madrid’s hat-trick hero Karim Benzema celebrates scoring against Real Valladolid

Robert Lewandowski struck twice as Barcelona moved 15 points clear at the top of La Liga with a comfortable 4-0 win at Elche on Saturday night.

A few hours later, Karim Benzema scored a fine hat-trick as Real Madrid brought down that gap to 12 points, with a 6-0 rout of Real Valladolid, on Sunday.

Barca's Polish forward Lewandowski has endured a small dip in form recently, but was back to his lethal best to continue the Catalans' procession towards their first title since 2019. Ansu Fati also scored for the first time since October in the league and Ferran Torres rounded out the comfortable win, as Xavi was able to start some reserve players ahead of Wednesday's Copa del Rey semi-final with Real Madrid.

Also read: Robert Lewandowski may miss Copa del Rey Clasico

A day later, Benzema proved his brilliance for Real Madrid, netting thrice (29th, 32nd, 36th minute) in the span of eight minutes. Rodrygo, Marco Asensio and Lucas Vasquez completed the tally for the Madrid outfit.

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