Villarreal strengthened their grip on third place in La Liga with a 3-1 home win over Alaves, sealing their best-ever first half of a top-flight season, while late goals decided matches involving Real Sociedad, Valencia, Girona and Real Betis.
Real Madrid's strong starting line-up faced little resistance, leading 3-0 against an Alaves side resting most of their regulars ahead of a match against Getafe. Lucas Vazquez opened the scoring in the first minute with a pullback from Vinicius Jr, and Kylian Mbappe doubled the lead with his fifth goal in five games just before halftime.
Gareth Bale and Eden Hazard both started for Real Madrid, but the game was even in the first half and it wasn't until the 48th minute that Benzema opened the scoring after a move involving Bale and Hazard.
The six-time Ballon d'Or winner was named in Ronald Koeman's starting XI for a meeting with Alaves on Saturday, a game in which he scored twice in a 5-1 win. That outing has taken him level with a former team-mate Xavi when it comes to league outings for the Blaugrana.
I have no explanation for tonight. We've had good and bad moments in games like today's. Especially at the beginning, when they scored a goal after three minutes. We had time to get back into the game and then things
"We are angry, and angry because we wanted the three points. We are failing a lot in front of the goal, I am the first. We have had many chances, but we have only scored one," Goal.com quoted Griezmann as saying.
"I'm worried by our performance in attack. It's not an attitude problem, nor concentration, but it's a question of being more assured in front of goal," Goal.com quoted Koeman as saying.
