Athletic Club 0-3 Real Madrid: Mbappe at the double as LaLiga winless run ends emphatically

Kylian Mbappe scored twice as Real Madrid emphatically ended their winless run in LaLiga with a 3-0 victory over Athletic Club at San Mames.

Xabi Alonso's team had drawn three straight games in the top flight to fall behind Barcelona at the top of the table but moved back within a point of the Blaugrana with victory on Wednesday.

Mbappe had already been thwarted by Unai Simon by the time he brilliantly took down Trent Alexander-Arnold's cross-field ball and whipped past the Spain goalkeeper in the seventh minute.

Thibaut Courtois then did well to deny Alex Berenguer and Vinicius Junior hit the post at the other end, before Eduardo Camavinga nodded into an open goal from Mbappe's headed assist at the end of a fine Madrid move three minutes prior to the break.

Mikel Jauregizar saw an effort from range tipped over by Courtois early after the restart as Athletic sought a way back into the game.

But Mbappe had his second shortly before the hour, catching Simon off guard with a wonderful low whip from 25 yards that nestled into the bottom-right corner.

Federico Valdverde was athletically denied by Simon in the closing stages but Madrid had already well and truly sewn up the game by that point.

Data Debrief: Mbappe the hero again as Madrid become centurions

Mbappe was in typically influential form and each of his four shots in the game were on target, while he greatly outperformed his 0.44 expected goals (xG).

The French striker now has 25 goals in 20 games across all competitions, the most among players in Europe's top five leagues (excluding the Club World Cup).

Victory here marked Madrid's 100th LaLiga win over Athletic (P189, W100, D37, L52). Only two teams have reached 100 wins against a single opponent in the competition's history - Madrid themselves against Espanyol (109) and Barcelona also against Espanyol (104).