Gareth Bale marked his return to action after a long injury layoff by sealing a 2-0 victory for Real Madrid over Espanyol Saturday to provisionally stretch Zinedine Zidane's side's lead at the top of La Liga to four 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 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. They top the standings on 52 points, four clear of Barcelona in third on 46. Real has two games in hand. Earlier Saturday, Kevin Gameiro came off the bench to score a hat trick in the space of five minutes to fire Atletico Madrid to a 4-1 win over struggling Sporting Gijon that kept it fourth in the standings on 45 points. Yannick Carrasco had given Atletico the lead 12 seconds into the second half but Sergio Alvarez gave the impressive home side a deserved equalizer in the 49th minute. Sporting continued to cause Diego Simeone's side problems after drawing level and Alvarez missed a gilt-edged chance to put it ahead when he sent a half-volley over the bar from close range. For the second week in a row, however, Atletico dug deep to rescue the points from an unconvincing display. Antoine Griezmann had a goal harshly ruled out for offside but laid on the pass for Gameiro's first strike, the former Sevilla player calmly rounding Ivan Cuellar to put Atletico ahead in the 80th minute. Gameiro ruthlessly killed off Sporting with two quick-fire strikes, latching on to a pass from Thomas Partey to score in the 81st minute and taking advantage of another through ball from Griezmann to complete his treble. The Frenchman is the first Atletico player to score a hat trick in the league as a substitute while his treble was the second fastest in the history of La Liga, behind only Bebeto's for Deportivo La Coruna against Albacete in 1995. Lewandowski rescues Bayern Bundesliga leader Bayern Munich needed a last-gasp goal from striker Robert Lewandowski to rescue a 1-1 draw at Hertha Berlin Saturday and increase its advantage at the top to eight points. Hertha scored through Vedad Ibisevic with the Bosnian volleying in for his ninth goal of the campaign and Bayern. But Lewandowski was in the right place at the right time to fire in from close range with the last kick of the game. Bayern moved up to 50 points with RB Leipzig, in second place on 42, traveling to Borussia Moenchengladbach Sunday. Borussia Dortmund bounced back from its midweek Champions League loss at Benfica to ease past VfL Wolfsburg 3-0 and climb into third place on 37 points. An own goal from Jeffrey Bruma put it in the driving seat before Lukasz Piszczek and Ousmane Dembele increased their lead with second-half goals. Hoffenheim climbed to fourth with a 2-0 win at home to bottom side Darmstadt. Relegation-threatened Werder Bremen escaped the bottom three with a 2-0 win at Mainz. Eintracht Frankfurt squandered its chance to go third in the standings, slumping to a 2-0 defeat by visitors Ingolstadt to drop to sixth on 35 points. — Agencies
