BARCELONA: Anthony Gordon scored his first goal for Barcelona as the Spanish champions extended their perfect start to the La Liga season with a 3-0 win over Getafe on Saturday. Real Madrid finished with 10 men after Vinicius Junior was sent off for pulling an opponent’s hair, but held on to beat Villarreal 1-0. Yan Diomande scored the winner, keeping Jose Mourinho’s side third.
Madrid are six points behind Barcelona, who also lead second-placed Atletico Madrid by five points after Diego Simeone’s team snatched a late 2-1 win at Alaves.
England winger Gordon opened the scoring in the second minute at Camp Nou with a low deflected shot after forcing his way past three players. Gabriel Jesus, starting in place of the injured Raphinha, added a second after half an hour when Getafe defender Zaid Romero passed the ball straight to him in the box. France defender Jules Kounde tapped in the third from Lamine Yamal’s cross as Barca made it nine wins from nine games in all competitions.
“He’s doing very well,” coach Hansi Flick said of Gordon, who joined in the summer. “He has a lot of confidence… he gives us a lot.” Jesus, who scored his third goal for the club in his first start, said: “Being at Barca is a dream… playing with these players is very easy too, everyone plays very well.”
In Madrid, 19-year-old Diomande, the club’s record 140-million-euro ($157 million) signing, scored his first goal for Madrid in the 63rd minute with a low finish set up by Federico Valverde. Vinicius came on as a substitute and had a goal disallowed. He was sent off after a VAR review showed he had pulled the hair of Villarreal’s Nathan Saliba in the build-up. “Sorry to my team and the fans,” he said on Instagram.
The red card could rule Vinicius out of the Clasico on Oct 25. Mourinho declined to attend his post-match press conference in protest at the refereeing, a club source said. “I don’t know what’s going on with the referees, with this red card, I don’t understand, but the most important thing is the victory,” said midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni.
At Alaves, Alejandro Grimaldo put Atletico ahead before Lucas Boye equalized from the penalty spot before half-time. Alaves had Angel Perez sent off in the second half, and Cristian Romero’s 87th-minute header from Alex Baena’s cross won the game for Atletico. — AFP
