Lewandowski, Mbappe duel fuelling tight La Liga title race

BARCELONA: Just three points separate leaders Barcelona from Real Madrid at the top of La Liga in a gripping campaign and three goals also divide their main marksmen.

Barcelona´s Robert Lewandowski is the division´s top goalscorer with 25 and Madrid´s Kylian Mbappe trails him on 22, adding another facet to the engrossing battle. The Catalans host soaring Real Betis, sixth, on Saturday, shortly after champions Real Madrid welcome relegation-battling Valencia to the Santiago Bernabeu.

Last weekend after Mbappe notched twice against Leganes as Madrid scraped a 3-2 win, Lewandowski responded with a brace of his own in Barcelona´s 4-1 rout of Girona. In the final stages his team spurned opportunities to score more goals and Lewandowski highlighted that. “In the last minutes there was more space and more chance of scoring,” noted the 36-year-old Poland international.

“If we had a better final ball we could have scored one or two more goals.” Lewandowski has netted nine goals in his last nine league games and has 38 strikes from 43 matches across all competitions.

Despite his age, he believes he still has the quality to make the difference at an elite club for years to come. “I know a lot of people are talking abut my age, but I´m working since (I was) 21, 22, until now and I want to play more years at the top level.

“I feel very good physically, I think looking at the stats there´s no difference now to a few years ago.” Barcelona coach Hansi Flick insisted the striker was focused on team success as well as battling for Spain´s “Pichichi” award.

“He´s fit, he´s 100 percent, I know he wants to win the Pichichi,” said Flick. “But like I´ve always said the most important thing is the team... and this is what I can feel more, that he thinks about the team and focuses on the team and helps the team.”

Not far behind him is Mbappe, who boasts 33 goals in 46 games this season, equalling the tally Cristiano Ronaldo produced in his first season for Real Madrid. Mbappe idolised the Portuguese striker, who joined Los Blancos in 2009 from Manchester United and said it was “very special” to match him.