MADRID.- He real Madrid rose to second position in LaLiga after beating the Seville (12th) 4-2 at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, in the farewell of Jesús Navas as a professional footballer, during the 18th matchday of the domestic championship.
The French Kylian Mbappé(10) opened the scoring – he has ten goals this season in LaLiga – and was quickly joined by the Uruguayan Federico Valverde (20) and the Brazilian Rodrygo(33). For the visitors, Isaac Romero (34) closed the gap.
The party for the whites continued with another goal from Brahim Díaz (53), also countered by the Belgian Dodi Lukebakio (85) for a Sevilla that in this way was able to make up for the result.
The white team thus follows in the footsteps of Atlético de Madrid, which on Saturday remained the sole leader after beating Barcelona, now third, 2-1 in injury time in the Catalan fiefdom.
The colchoneros go into the Christmas holidays with 41 points, one more than the Madridistas and three more than Barça. The two Madrid teams also have one game less than their Catalan rival.
In a counterattack by the whites that did not present any danger in the 10th minute of play, the ball reached Rodrygo on the wing and he gave it to Mbappé on the edge, so that he connected with a powerful shot to beat goalkeeper Álvaro Fernández.
Ten minutes later, the Uruguayan Valverde scored again with another great goal from outside the area to ‘KO’ the Sevilla team, which had barely generated any chances until that moment.
In the 33rd minute, Lucas Vázquez easily came down the lane to assist Rodrygo, who finished from point-blank range without the Seville goalkeeper being able to stop it.
While the fans were still celebrating the third goal, Romero beat the Frenchman Aurelien Tchouameni and headed a ball past the Belgian goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, which gave life to Sevilla (34).
final blow
After the restart, another great collective goal widened the difference for the locals. Lucas Vázquez left the ball to Mbappé, who filtered a pass to Brahim Díaz to finish low.
In ’64, all the fans applauded Navas, a historic player for Sevilla and the Spanish team who stepped on the field this Sunday for the last time as a footballer.
With five minutes remaining, Lukebakio pierced the Madrid goal with a left-footed shot from without much angle. Courtois measured badly.
