Robert Lewandowski announced his return to fitness with a hat-trick as Barcelona closed the gap to La Liga leaders Real Madrid with an untidy 4-2 win away to Celta Vigo.

The Catalan club took advantage of Madrid’s goalless draw at Rayo Vallecano earlier on Sunday to move back into second place just three points behind.

Lewandowski, who only last week returned in a brief substitute appearance after a muscle injury sidelined him for a month, scored his first goals for the club since the end of September.

On-loan Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford claimed assists for two of Lewandowski’s goals and also had a hand in Lamine Yamal’s goal in first-half added time.

Celta, who have drawn seven of their previous 11 matches, did not make life easy for the champions with equalizing goals from Sergio Carreira and Borja Iglesias before Barca pulled away. 

– Nampa/AFP