Kylian Mbappé continued his fantastic run of form, scoring a hat-trick on Saturday to lead Real Madrid to a 3-0 victory over Valladolid, extending their lead to four points at the top of La Liga.
Atletico Madrid, in second place, were held to a 1-1 draw at home against Villarreal, while Barcelona, in third, now trail Los Blancos by 10 points ahead of their match against Valencia on Sunday.
Mbappé has found his devastating best in recent weeks, shaking off earlier inconsistencies following his summer move from Paris Saint-Germain.
The French superstar climbed to 15 league goals for the season, trailing only Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski, on 16.
Mbappe’s treble helped Madrid ease to a simple away victory against bottom side Valladolid, without suspended Brazil international Vinicius Junior.
The hosts made early inroads, with Madrid stopper Thibaut Courtois saving from David Torres’ header, but that was about as good as it got for them.
Madrid started to chip away at their opponents and made the breakthrough in the 30th minute when Jude Bellingham nudged a deflected pass through to Mbappe, who curled into the top corner.
The former PSG star has now scored in each of his last five games for the club and is looking every part the potent attacking force Madrid were hoping he would be.
Madrid were controlling the game without creating too many chances, but with Mbappe in his purple patch, he only needed one more to put the game to bed.
Rodrygo Goes slipped in the forward who curled a low effort past goalkeeper Karl Hein from a similar position to his first goal in the 57th minute.
Mbappe completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot in the final stages, after Mario Martin lunged into a tackle on Bellingham in the area.
The Valladolid midfielder won the ball but then clattered into the England international’s calf with studs-up, earning a red card for the challenge.
Mbappé made no mistake from the penalty spot, sending Hein the wrong way to notch his 12th goal in his last 11 games across all competitions.
