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Real Madrid win on Saturday, while Bacca hat-trick takes Villarreal closer to Europe

Xinhua,April 29, 2018 Adjust font size:

MADRID, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Real Madrid rested virtually all of their first team on Saturday night as they claimed a narrow 2-1 win at home to Leganes.

Zinedine Zidane only played Casemiro from his regular starting 11, with his attention clearly focused on Tuesday’s Champions League semifinal at home to Bayern Munich in which Madrid defend a 2-1 first leg but his side opened the scoring through Gareth Bale in the 8th minute.

Young striker Borja Mayoral doubled the lead on the stroke of halftime, but Darko Brasanac gave Leganes hope with 25 minutes remaining and the home side were furious when referee Gonzalez Gonzalez blew the final whistle just as Nabil El Zhar was about to shoot from the edge of the area and Leganes midfielder Gabriel Pires was sent off for his protests.

Villarreal striker Carlos Bacca scored a hat-trick as his side took a major step towards securing a place in next season’s Europa League as they defeated Celta Vigo 4-1.

Bacca's goals came in the first 38 minutes of the game with Pione Sisto netting for the visitors, before Samu Castellejo's late goal to round off the night. While Villarreal strengthen their place in sixth, Celta's options of European football for next season have disappeared with the defeat.

Mikel San Jose scored two own goals as Real Sociedad beat Athletic Club Bilbao in the Basque derby with Mikel Oyarzabal scoring the other goal for the home side while Raul Garcia netted for Athletic.

Meanwhile Espanyol and Las Palmas drew 1-1 with Gerard Moreno's 15th goals of the campaign cancelling out Jonathan Callieri's first half penalty for Las Palmas, who have already been mathematically relegated to the second division.

Friday saw Levante beat Sevilla 2-1; a result which saw Sevilla boss Vincenzo Montella sacked on Saturday afternoon and replaced with Joaquin Caparros. Enditem