BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — After a slow start to his Real Madrid career, Kylian Mbappé has already surpassed one of the club greats.
Mbappé scored twice in Madrid's 2-1 comeback win over Villarreal on Saturday to take his tally to 31 goals in all competitions this season — one more than Brazil striker Ronaldo managed in his first campaign at the club. It also helped Madrid open up a three-point lead atop the Spanish league over Barcelona, which has played two games less.
Long gone are the scoring troubles Mbappé endured in his first months at Madrid.
Having surpassed Ronaldo's tally from 2002-03, the former Paris Saint-Germain player is now closing in on the 33 goals that Cristiano Ronaldo scored in his first season with Madrid in 2009-10.
“They are legends who marked eras with the club,” Mbappé said about the two Ronaldos. “If I score more goals than Ronaldo and Cristiano it doesn’t mean that I am better, just that my first season is better. Scoring goals is important, but it is even more so if we win La Liga, the Champions League and the Copa del Rey.”
His double at fifth-placed Villarreal took Mbappe’s La Liga tally to 20 goals, only one fewer than Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski in the domestic competition.
Leading the comeback
Villarreal made it a pulsating game as it attacked in waves with Alex Baena and Nicolas Pepe helping create a series of chances. Thibaut Courtois made three good stops for Madrid to deny Pepe, Ayoze Pérez, and Pape Gueye in the first half.
But Villarreal paid at the other end where Mbappé ruthlessly exploited the holes in the Yellow Submarine’s defense.
“Mbappé didn’t participate much, but he was lethal,” Villarreal coach Marcelino Toral said.
A one-handed save by Courtois to deny Ayoze led to a corner kick that resulted in Villarreal’s eight-minute opener. Juan Foyth swept home a ball that fell to him inside the six-yard box after it had ricocheted off players in a packed area.
Mbappé leveled in the 17th after he teed up teammate Brahim Díaz for a shot that was saved by goalkeeper Diego Conde, and the ball fell to the France striker to rifle home.
Mbappé was on the scoreboard again in the 23rd when Villarreal’s defense lost track of him at the top of the area. He received a pass from Lucas Vázquez and had all the time he needed to place a shot into the right corner.
Halftime substitute Thierno Barry and Foyth both squandered scoring opportunities early in the second half before Madrid tightened its defense to see out the game.
Carlo Ancelotti left Vinícius Júnior and Antonio Rudiger on the bench until the final half hour – with Luka Modric going on shortly after – as the Madrid coach rotated his lineup three days after its grueling Champions League victory over Atletico Madrid that went to a penalty shootout.
“This was an important and difficult game against one of the best teams in the league,” Mbappé said. “After the game against Atletico and its added time it was very tough today but we knew we had to win. We showed character and that we wanted this win.”
Barcelona is three points behind Madrid ahead of its visit to third-placed Atletico Madrid, which is four points back, on Sunday. It also has a postponed game versus Osasuna still to be played.
Madrid complains about schedule
Ancelotti said that Real Madrid was upset that the game in Villarreal wasn't pushed back as it had requested to give its players more rest. As a result the club said it won’t agree to play another game without 72 hours of rest between matches.
Madrid’s game at Villarreal game kicked off at 6:30 p.m. local time (1730 GMT) on Saturday. Madrid had played a Champions League game against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday that started at 9:00 p.m. and lasted 120 minutes plus a penalty shootout.
“This is the last time we will play within 72 hours,” Ancelotti said.
García saves, Muriqi decides
Vedat Muriqi made up for an own goal and a missed penalty kick by converting a stoppage-time penalty to complete Mallorca's 2-1 comeback win over Espanyol.
Espanyol goalkeeper Joan García delivered another top performance by saving two penalties.
García stopped Muriqi’s second-half penalty and appeared to have secured a point for the visitors when he also denied Abdon Prats in injury time, but the referee ordered the penalty to be retaken after an Espanyol player had entered the area ahead of time.
Muriqi, whose early own goal was canceled out by teammate Takuma Asano, stepped back up to the spot and redeemed himself by finally beating García with his team’s third attempt from the spot.
Also, former Chelsea defender Marcos Alonso converted a late penalty to give Celta Vigo a 1-0 win at last-place Valladolid, while Cristhian Stuani scored to salvage Girona a 1-1 draw at home with Valencia.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Joseph Wilson, The Associated Press
