World Cup winner Toni Kroos and Real Madrid took another step towards a league title with a 2-1 win over Athletic Bilbao. The win was their fourth in the last five games and extends their gap to Barcelona at the top to five points. Barca take on Valencia on Sunday evening.
Karim Benzema and Casemiro scored the goals for Madrid, a day after the Champions League draw pitted them against Bayern Munich in the Quarterfinals. Zenedine Zidane’s side also have a game in hand over Barcelona after having to miss a fixture in December because of the Club World Cup.
World cup winner Mustafi loses to West Brom with Arsenal.
The Champions League places continue to drift seemingly further from Arsenal’s reach after the Gunners lost 3-1 away at West Brom in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.
Arsene Wenger started Mustafi and had Per Mertesacker on the bench for the defeat, which was sealed thanks to two headers from Craig Dawson and a Hal Robson-Kanu strike. Alexis Sanchez had leveled for the London side early on.
Arsenal remain fifth in the table with 50 points.