Villarreal striker nets four in draw with Madrid

Villarreal forward Alexander Sørloth struck four times in 17 minutes to help his side fight back and snatch a 4-4 home draw against champions Real Madrid on Sunday as the Norway international became LaLiga’s top scorer.

Real opened the scoring in the 14th minute when Turkish youngster Arda Guler slotted home a low strike off a Brahim Diaz pass before Joselu doubled the lead with a close-range header on the half-hour mark.

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Sørloth pulled one back for Villarreal with a towering header in the 39th minute, but Lucas Vazquez restored Real’s two-goal advantage only a minute later before Guler made it 4-1 in the final seconds of the first half.

But the hosts rallied after the break, with Sørloth scoring three goals in eight minutes, between the 48th and 56th, as he reached 23 league goals this season.

Madrid face Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final in two weeks but manager Carlo Ancelotti said the result “doesn’t worry him.”

“It was a game like that, very open. It was a game to play well, try to play attacking football. We conceded more goals than necessary but that doesn’t matter, it has nothing to do with the [Champions League] final. There were good things, in attack we played well and Arda [Guler] above all showed something special,” he said after the game. 

On goalkeeper Andriy Lunin, Ancelotti said: “Yes, I liked him, he couldn’t do anything about the goals they scored, he was good with his feet, he played a good game. The goals weren’t his fault, obviously.”