The Japan Times - Mbappe's Real Madrid extend Liga lead, Villarreal move second

Villarreal continued their strong start to the season by thrashing Rayo Vallecano 4-0 to climb above champions Barcelona into second place provisionally.

Atletico Madrid earned a comfortable 3-0 win over Sevilla to tighten their grip on fourth and pull level on points with champions Barca, who host Elche on Sunday looking to cut Madrid's lead back to five points.

After Mbappe's double Jude Bellingham and Alvaro Carreras also scored for rampant Real as they racked up an easy victory ahead of Tuesday's Champions League clash at Liverpool.

Vinicius started on the left of Madrid's attack after he apologised for his high-profile sulk following his substitution in the Clasico win over Barcelona last weekend.

The Brazilian missed a penalty in the first half, after appearing to ask Mbappe to take it, but otherwise turned in a decent performance.

"I want them to score the penalties, they are good opportunities," Real Madrid coach Alonso told reporters.

Mbappe netted a penalty to open the scoring and Alonso confirmed the French superstar is the man tasked with taking the spot kicks.

"The first was scored by Kylian and the second I would have liked to be scored too, but it's not a big topic, Kylian is still the first choice taker... (Vinicius) had a very good game," said Alonso.

Alonso went with arguably his strongest side, despite his team's advantage in the table and the impending visit to Anfield.

Mbappe's double and Bellingham's strike gave Madrid a commanding three-goal lead at the break and effectively finished the game.

Mbappe has now scored 18 goals across all competitions in 14 games, and leads the Spanish scoring charts with 12 in La Liga.

"Time will tell (how many he can score), you can't really extrapolate how many goals he'll get based on his average (so far)," said Alonso.

"Kylian has that ease of finding the net, of being in the right place... he will score many goals."

After netting from the spot following a Cesar Tarrega handball, Mbappe volleyed home Arda Guler's cross for Madrid's second.

Following Vinicius' missed penalty, Bellingham brilliantly found the bottom corner with a powerful drive.

The England international has been in sparkling form over the past fortnight, with goals against Juventus and Barcelona.

Madrid cruised through the second half until Carreras smashed home the fourth in the 82nd minute.

The Portuguese left-back rifled into the top right corner to score the goal of the night and his first for the club.

"I'm proud, these things happen when they happen, I wasn't in a hurry, my job is (defending)," said Carreras.

Valencia are winless in six league games and down in 18th.

- Chasing Madrid -

Marcelino Garcia Toral's Villarreal kept the pressure on the leaders with their emphatic home win over Rayo.

Veteran striker Gerard Moreno opened the scoring and Alberto Moleiro added a superb second after the break, driving forward and slotting home from outside the area.

The midfielder teed up Santi Comesana for the third two minutes later, with Ayoze Perez grabbing the fourth.

Atletico Madrid cruised to victory against Sevilla at the Metropolitano stadium with goals from Julian Alvarez, Thiago Almada and Antoine Griezmann.

Diego Simeone's side found the breakthrough after the interval, when Tanguy Nianzou fouled Jose Gimenez in the area and Alvarez dispatched the resulting penalty.

Almada tucked away the second after good work by Giuliano Simeone and Griezmann stroked home a fine third late on. It was the French forward's 200th goal in the Spanish top flight.

Atletico extended their unbeaten league run to 10 matches and kept a third consecutive La Liga clean sheet.

"We need to improve, our goal is to humbly continue improving," said Diego Simeone.

Real Sociedad earned a 3-2 Basque derby triumph over rivals Athletic Bilbao to make up for a poor start to the season.

Y.Ishikawa--JT