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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport

Barcelona return to La Liga summit after seeing off 10-man Real Sociedad

Barcelona returned to the top of the LaLiga table with a 4-0 rout of 10-man Real Sociedad.

Atletico had assumed pole position on Saturday after city rivals Real Madrid suffered a shock defeat at Real Betis.

But Barca had no such issues at home to their mid-table opponents, who had Aritz Elustondo sent off in only the 17th minute for what was deemed a last-man foul on Dani Olmo.

Gerard Martin (second left) scored his first Barcelona goal (Joan Monfort/AP)

Brilliant play from Lamine Yamal helped set up defender Gerard Martin for his first career goal in the 25th minute and – four minutes later – Marc Casado added the second.

Ronald Araujo then nodded in from five yards in the 56th minute before Robert Lewandowski completed the scoring on the hour mark.

Umar Sadiq’s late goal earned lowly Valencia a point in an entertaining 3-3 draw with Osasuna.

Valencia twice led through Diego Lopez and Sadiq but were pegged back on both occasions by Aimar Oroz, and Ante Budimir’s 45th-minute penalty looked to have earned Osasuna the win until Sadiq’s 87th-minute intervention.

Mallorca slipped two points off the top six after they were held to a 1-1 draw by struggling Alaves.

Takuma Asano netted for the hosts in only the ninth minute but Kike Garcia equalised for Alaves midway through the second half.

Diego Garcia scored an injury-time winner to hand Leganes a much-needed 1-0 victory over Getafe.

Over in Italy, AC Milan’s struggles continued as they fell to a last-gasp 2-1 home defeat against Lazio.

Sergio Conceicao’s side sit in ninth place in the Serie A table after Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan was deemed to have brought down Gustav Isaksen deep into stoppage time and Pedro converted the resulting penalty winner.

AC Milan’s Strahinja Pavlovic was sent off (Antonio Calanni/AP)

Mattia Zaccagni had put Champions League-chasing Lazio ahead in the 28th minute but Milan equalised six minutes from time through Samuel Chukwueze, despite having Strahinja Pavlovic sent off.

Roma moved past Milan thanks to a 2-1 comeback victory over 10-man Como, for whom Dele Alli was an unused substitute.

Lucas Da Cunha gave Como a first-half lead but Alexis Saelemaekers equalised just before Marc-Oliver Kempf was sent off for Como and Artem Dovbyk scored the winner in the 76th minute.

Bologna moved up into sixth after a 2-1 win against Cagliari, with Riccardo Orsolini netting both goals for the Turin side.

Bottom side Monza lost 2-0 at home to Torino, while Empoli claimed an important point in a 1-1 draw with Genoa.

Mason Greenwood scored again for Marseille in their 2-0 victory over Nantes. The former Manchester United man netted in the 77th minute to clinch the points after Amine Gouiri had opened the scoring.

Alexandre Lacazette scored both goals for Lyon in their 2-1 win against Brest, while there were 4-0 away wins for Toulouse at Angers and Rennes at Montpellier, as Strasbourg defeated Auxerre 1-0.

In the Bundesliga, Armin Gigovic’s goal just before half-time earned struggling Holstein Kiel an important 1-0 win at Union Berlin, while fifth-placed Freiburg were held to a goalless draw by Augsburg.

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