MADRID (AP) — Robert Lewandowski continued his impressive start to the season on Sunday, scoring a 25-minute hat trick as Barcelona beat Alaves 3-0 and went into the international break top of the Spanish league.
Lewandowski scored in the seventh, 22nd and 32nd minutes to take his league tally to 10 goals in nine matches. He has a total of 12 goals in 11 games in all competitions, and has scored eight times in his last five matches.
The Poland striker was coming off a brace in Barcelona's 5-0 rout of Young Boys in the Champions League on Tuesday.
“We played a very good match from the first minute,” Lewandowski said. “When you score three goals in the first half, it gives you the ability to be a lot more in control in the second.”
The victory moved Barcelona three points back in front of Real Madrid ahead of the international break. Madrid had drawn even on points with the Catalan club with a 2-0 win over third-place Villarreal on Saturday.
Barcelona was coming off its first league loss of the season — a 4-2 defeat against Osasuna. It had previously won its first seven matches in the competition.
Lewandowski scored with close-range strikes after a pair of assists by Raphinha and another from Eric Garcia.
It was the third loss in a row for Alaves, which had no attempts on goal in the first half.
Barcelona lost forward Ferran Torres with an apparent muscle injury five minutes into the match.
Penalty finally converted
Girona ended a six-match winless streak in all competitions with a 2-1 victory at home against Athletic Bilbao, with Cristhian Stuani scoring the winner by converting a penalty kick nine minutes into second-half stoppage time.
Before that, the match had been marked by three penalty saves by Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga — one in the first half and two in the second after a video review required the last penalty to be retaken.
It was Athletic's first loss in six matches in all competitions.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Tales Azzoni, The Associated Press
