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| September 15, 2003 | Monday | Rajab 17, 1424 |
Anelka hat trick puts Manchester City in third place
LONDON, Sept 14: French striker Nicolas Anelka hit a second-half hat trick as Manchester City came from behind to crush Aston Villa 4-1 in the premier league on Sunday.
Trailing at the break to a header from Colombian striker Juan Pablo Angel after a poor display, City hit back with a free-kick from German midfielder Michael Tarnat and the first of two penalties converted by Anelka within five minutes of the re-start.
The Frenchman scored again from the spot before breaking away to seal his first hat-trick in a City shirt and his team’s first league win at their new City of Manchester Stadium.
Coach Kevin Keegan, whose side moved up to third place in the table, ahead of Chelsea on goal difference, told Sky Sports: “They deserved to be a goal up, but in the second half our work rate, passing and finishing all got better.
“I thought everything that was good about us today started around Steve McManaman,” he added after an inspired debut performance by his former Real Madrid midfielder.
“That’s not easy on your debut but for a player of his standing he probably expects to go out and do that.”
City are two points behind Manchester rivals United and three points behind leaders Arsenal.
Villa, with one win from five games under David O’Leary, are 15th on four points.
Results (played on Sunday):
Manchester City 4 Aston Villa 1
Birmingham City 2 Fulham 2
Playing on Monday: Leicester City v Leeds United (1900)
Played on Saturday:
Arsenal 1 Portsmouth 1
Blackburn Rovers 1 Liverpool 3
Bolton Wanderers 2 Middlesbrough 0
Charlton Athletic 0 Manchester United 2
Chelsea 4 Tottenham Hotspur 2
Everton 2 Newcastle United 2
Southampton 2 W. Wanderers 0
MADRID: Spanish international striker Raul helped himself to a classy hat trick as Real Madrid ran riot at the Bernabeu to produce a 7-2 destruction of a disappointing Valladolid in a first division match on Saturday.
But Deportivo Coruna, the only side in the division who have yet to drop a point, retained top spot in the table thanks to a 2-1 win away to Sevilla with goals coming from Uruguayan striker Walter Pandiani and substitute Diego Tristan.
Saturday’s results left Depor top on nine points, two ahead of defending champions Real and four ahead of last season’s runners up Real Sociedad who claimed their first win of the season with a 1-0 victory away to Racing Santander.
Real began the match at the Bernabeu in positive mood, pinning Valladolid back in their own area and putting together a series of slick passing moves.
Valladolid keeper Albano Bizzarri produced two fine early saves to deny first Ronaldo and then Raul from putting Real ahead, but he was powerless to stop the home side taking the lead in the next attack.
Former Real Madrid defender Julio Cesar, who joined Valladolid on loan at the beginning of the season, sent his team mate the wrong way when he got his head to a wild shot from Ronaldo and sent it ballooning over the keeper into the net.
Real got the breakthrough they wanted but it was skipper Raul, who had been criticised for his slow start to the season, who produced a virtuoso performance that put the game beyond doubt before halftime.
His first came with a marvellous improvised aerial back-heel when he somehow managed to get his foot to a neat cross from Luis Figo and send it curling over Bizzarri into the far corner just after the half-hour mark.
Two minutes later he controlled a curling pass from Roberto Carlos with his chest and then caught the unfortunate Bizzarri off guard as he scooped the ball over his head and into the net.
David Beckham, who had another fine game at the heart of the Real midfield, provided the scoring pass for Real’s fourth.
The former Manchester United man swung in a fine curling cross from the right over to the far side of the area where Zinedine Zidane met it with a perfect volley to put Real 4-0 up.
The England captain blotted his copybook, though, a few minutes later when he handballed a free kick in the area, allowing Valladolid striker Roberto Losada to pull one back from the penalty spot.
A frantic three minutes followed with Luis Figo scoring from the penalty spot at the other end when he was brought down by Cesar and just over a minute later midfielder Chema reduced Real’s lead once more when he nodded in from close range.
Beckham had a hand in Real’s sixth goal when he threaded a ball through the Valladolid defence for Ronaldo who checked past one defender, cut inside towards the area and curled a superb shot inside the far post.
But it was left to Raul to wrap up an easy win 15 minutes before the final whistle.
The striker pounced on the ball after Bizzarri spilled a Michel Salgado shot, dribbled the ball towards the open net and finished with a flourish as he back-heeled across the line.
It was Raul’s 158th league goal in his 10 seasons as a Real Madrid player and allowed him to overtake famed Hungarian striker Ferenc Puskas to become the fourth highest scorer in the club’s history.
Results:
Celta Vigo 0 Real Betis 2
Racing Santander 0 Real Sociedad 1
Real Madrid 7 Valladolid 2
Sevilla 1 Deportivo Coruna 2
PARIS: Results of French Ligue 1 soccer matches played on Saturday:
Olympique Lyon 1 AJ Auxerre 1
Lille 1 Monaco 1
Bastia 4 En Avant Guingamp 2
Girondins Bordeaux 1 Sochaux 3
Olympique Marseille 5 Le Mans 0
Metz 2 Montpellier 1
Nice 1 Nantes 0
Stade Rennes 2 RC Lens 0
Racing Strasbourg 3 AC Ajaccio 2
BERLIN: German league results on Sunday:
Kaiserslautern 2 SC Freiburg 2
B. Monchengladbach 0 E. Frankfurt 2
Saturday
Borussia Dortmund 2 Werder Bremen 1
Hertha Berlin 2 Hannover 3
Schalke 04 0 VfB Stuttgart 0
Bayer Leverkusen 1 SV Hamburg 0
Hansa Rostock 0 VfL Bochum 2
VfL Wolfsburg 3 Bayern Munich 2
1860 Munich 2 Cologne 1
—Agencies
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