Mbappé scores again as Madrid beats Valencia in La Liga. Girona's Stuani fails late penalty test

MADRID (AP) — Kylian Mbappé struck again as Real Madrid beat Valencia 2-0 on Sunday to win its seventh game in a row in the Spanish league and move back within a point of leader Barcelona.

Mbappé scored from close range early in second-half stoppage time for his ninth goal in six games to seal Madrid's win. Álvaro Carreras had put Madrid ahead in the 65th with his second goal with the club.

“We’re running out of superlatives to describe Kylian,” Madrid coach Álvaro Arbeloa said.

Madrid was playing without Vinícius Júnior (yellow card suspension) and Jude Bellingham (left hamstring injury).

“We controlled the game well, (goalkeeper Thibaut) Courtois didn’t have to make any saves, and it was a solid performance from the players,” Arbeloa said.

Madrid's last defeat in the league was in December at home to Celta Vigo.

Barcelona defeated Mallorca 3-0 at home on Saturday for its 17th win in its last 18 games in all competitions.

Valencia fans jeered the team after the final whistle. It's in 17th place, just outside the relegation zone.

Fifth-place Real Betis won 1-0 at third-place Atletico Madrid in a game played three days after it was routed 5-0 by Atletico at home in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey.

Antony netted Betis' winner on Sunday to give the team its second straight league win. Diego Simeone's Atletico has won only one of its last three matches in all competitions.

Sevilla and Girona drew 1-1 in a game that was moved to Sunday because of bad weather, with Girona striker Cristhian Stuani entering the match just to take a late penalty kick and failing to convert it.

The match was scheduled to be played on Saturday but the league put it back a day because of a severe storm alert in the southern city of Seville.

Girona took the lead two minutes into the match with Thomas Lemar's goal. The hosts eventually equalized with a long-range shot into the top corner by Kike Salas two minutes into stoppage time.

Six minutes later Girona missed a chance to get back in front when Stuani was denied from the penalty spot.

Girona coach Míchel put Stuani into the match to take the penalty after it was awarded, and the veteran Uruguayan sent a low shot that was saved by Sevilla goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos.

“If I have to take a chance on someone taking a penalty, it will always be Stuani,” Míchel said.

Spanish media said Stuani hadn't failed with a penalty kick in a league game in three years.

The result left Girona in 12th place, one point ahead of 13th-place Sevilla. Girona is winless in three straight league matches.

Rayo Vallecano’s home match against Oviedo on Saturday was postponed on short notice because of safety concerns over the field at Vallecas Stadium.

Athletic Bilbao beat 10-man Levante 4-2 in a match with four goals scored after the 80th minute.

Athletic had a two-goal lead at halftime but Levante pulled closer in the 81st before the hosts made it 3-1 in the 86th. Levante scored again four minutes into stoppage time, and Athletic extended the lead in the ninth minute of added time.

Levante, second-to-last in the standings, played a man down from the 17th as Alan Matturro was sent off with a straight red card.

Athletic, in 10th place, hadn't won in six straight league games with its last victory over Atletico Madrid in December.

Getafe, in 11th, ended a nine-game winless streak across all competitions by winning 2-0 at 14th-place Alaves.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe, centre, and Valencia's Eray Comert challenge for the ball during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Valencia and Real Madrid in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Macia)

Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe, right, and Valencia's Eray Comert challenge for the ball during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Valencia and Real Madrid in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Macia)

Real Madrid's Alvaro Carreras, left, celebrates with Dean Huijsen, centre and Kylian Mbappe after scoring the opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Valencia and Real Madrid in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Macia)

Real Madrid's Alvaro Carreras celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Valencia and Real Madrid in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Macia)

Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe reacts during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Valencia and Real Madrid in Valencia, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Macia)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Las Vegas Review-Journal announced Friday that it will no longer print its rival the Las Vegas Sun for the first time in decades, amid an ongoing legal dispute over the nation's last joint operating agreement stemming from a 1970 law designed to preserve newspapers.

Readers “will not find a printed Las Vegas Sun insert inside,” the Review-Journal said in an editorial, noting the Sun maintains a website, has a few hundred thousand followers across social media platforms, and is free to produce its own newspaper.

“We encourage them to do so. The Review-Journal competes with countless sources of news and entertainment, but we would welcome one more. We just don’t want to foot the bill. It is time the Sun stood up on its own two feet,” the editorial said, without specifying the cost.

The two publications will be in court Friday and the Sun hopes a judge will order printing to immediately resume, attorney Leif Reid said in an email. It will be the first day in 76 years that the Sun hasn’t been printed, he said.

“This does irreparable harm to our community, as no one benefits when a local newspaper is prevented from being published,” he said.

The now-rare joint operating agreement required the Sun to be printed as a daily insert in the Review-Journal, while both companies remained editorially independent with separate newsrooms and websites.

A lower court had found the agreement was unenforceable because a 2005 update was never signed by the U.S. attorney general, and in February the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the Sun.

The Review-Journal editorial called the Supreme Court decision a decisive victory, saying that halting publication of the Sun on Friday was “a result of 6½ years of litigation between the newspapers, precipitated by the Sun.”

Such agreements between rival publications have dwindled as part of a "long, slow goodbye of newspapers as we knew them,” said Ken Doctor, a news business analyst. The Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News ended a 40-year agreement last year. USA Today Co., which owns the Detroit Free Press, recently announced its plans to purchase the Detroit News.

In 1950, the Sun was founded in response to the Review-Journal’s refusal to negotiate with typesetters from the International Typographical Union. The union started its own newspaper and reached out to businessman Hank Greenspun for financial backing. The Greenspuns still own the paper.

The Review-Journal has been publishing since 1909, first as the Clark County Review. It is owned by the Adelson family, casino magnates and mega GOP donors, and remains the state’s largest newspaper.

The Review-Journal’s editorials lean more conservative, while the Sun’s lean liberal. The 1970 law signed by then President Richard Nixon, called the Newspaper Preservation Act, was designed to save newspapers costs while maintaining competition and editorial variety in cities as newspapers began to financially struggle.

The papers first entered into a joint operating agreement in 1989 when the Sun was struggling to stay afloat financially. The agreement made the Sun an afternoon newspaper during weekdays and a section within the Review-Journal on weekend mornings, while the Review-Journal handled production, distribution and advertising. The Review-Journal also collected all revenue and was required to pay the Sun monthly to cover the Sun’s news and editorial expenses.

In 2005 the agreement was amended to make the Sun an insert in the Review-Journal every morning.

Review-Journal owners sought to end the agreement in 2019, and in response the Sun’s owners filed a lawsuit alleging that ending the agreement violated anti-trust laws.

The 1970 law allowing such agreements was signed at a time when news options weren't as prevalent and there was more concern over news monopolies.

Las Vegas — and Nevada as a whole — today have more strong, independent news organizations compared to other places, said Stephen Bates, a journalism and media professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The Sun also publishes online. But it has argued in court that losing its print product could make it harder to recruit staff, cause a loss in readers, and even force it to close.

Genelle Belmas, a journalism professor at the University of Kansas who specializes in media law, said it would be disappointing if the last joint operating agreement in the country ends. During visits to Vegas, she's enjoyed being able to pick up the Review-Journal and see the Sun folded inside, offering two differing points of view in one place. Online news outlets make it easier for consumers to stay in their echo chambers, she said.

“Every local news outlet we lose — and that includes big towns, small towns, whatever — is a loss of perspective and a loss of a potential alternative view,” Belmas said.

FILE - This Dec. 17, 2015 file photo shows a sign outside the building housing the Las Vegas Review-Journal in Las Vegas. AP Photo/John Locher, File)