MADRID: Gareth Bale made an instant impact on his return from injury by sealing a 2-0 victory for Real Madrid over Espanyol on Saturday to provisionally stretch Zinedine Zidane’s side’s lead at the top of La Liga to three points.

Alvaro Morata headed home a floated cross from Isco to put Real ahead after 33 minutes against a stubborn Espanyol side and Bale steered another pass from the Spain midfielder in off the post in the 83rd minute to round off a rapid counter-attack shortly after coming off the bench.

Bale, making his first appearance since damaging ankle ligaments against Sporting Lisbon in November, netted his eighth goal of the season. Real also set a club record of scoring in 42 consecutive games in all competitions.

“I’m happy to be back and to have got the goal because I’ve worked hard during the last few weeks to get fit,” Bale said. “I’ll take it game by game and keep working hard in the upcoming weeks to get back to 100 percent as soon as possible.”

Real top the standings on 52 points, three clear of Sevilla, who beat Eibar 2-0 at home thanks to goals from Pablo Sarabia and Vitolo in either half, with two matches in hand.

Sevilla kept the pressure on Real with the help of an inspired performance from Stevan Jovetic who laid on the passes for both their goals as they warmed up for their Champions League clash with struggling English champions Leicester City on Wednesday with victory.

The Montenegrin forward, a loan signing from Inter Milan in January, conjured up a classy piece of skill in the Eibar area before serving a cross for Sarabia to volley home from close range in the 30th minute and then pulled the ball back for Vitolo to make sure of the win in injury time.

Published in Dawn, february 20th , 2017