Ronaldo hat-trick as Real extend Liga lead
CRISTIANO Ronaldo returned to goalscoring form with his f i rst hat-t r ick of t he season a nd a lso missed a pena lt y as Real Madrid extended their lead at t he top of La Liga wit h a 4-1 w i n over A laves on Saturday.
Barcelona move up to second, just two points adrift, despite a below-par display in edging past bottom placed Granada 1-0 thanks to Rafinha’s winner.
Atletico Madrid remain three points back of city rivals Real thanks to doubles from Yannick Carrasco and Kevin Gameiro in a 4-2 win over Malaga despite playing with 10 men for the final half hour.
Ronaldo’s wayward form in recent weeks had come under the spotlight – even drawing whistles from the Santiago Bernabeu crowd last weekend – but he turned the game around after Deyverson had put Alaves into a shock early lead.
Slices of luck
“We are always going to demand goals from Cristiano, but he was good in all aspects,” said Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane.
“We knew how to suffer because the first half and the start of the second weren’t comfortable or easy.
“But playing like this, if you know how to suffer and then add a bit of movement, we know what we can do.”
Real’s unbeaten run stretches to 26 matches, but their defensive struggles continued in Vitoria as Zidane’s men got off to the worst possibleble start when Deyverson pouncednced on an error from goalkeeper per Keylor Navas to slot Alaves es into a seventh-minute lead.
The visitors needed two slices of fortune to turn thehe game around before half-time. me.
Fi r s t l y, Deyver s o n was judged to have handleded a Bale free-kick inside his own wn area and Ronaldo (pictured,ed, AFP) slotted home the penalty. alty.
Ronaldo’s second came 16 minutes later when his low effort from outside the area deflected off Zouhair r Feddal and flew into the far corner.
The Portuguese missed ssed the chance to seal his hat-trick when his second spot-kickkick was saved by Fernando Pachecocheco 12 minutes from time. Ho w e v e r, Mor a t a aga in made h i s p r e s - e n c e f e l t of f t he bench as he raced onto Marcelo’s through ball and lobbed the onrushing Pacheco for h i s fou r t h goa l a s a subst it ute t his season.
And Marcelo was involved again in the fourth as he and Ronaldo exchanged passes before the latter smashed home two minutes from time.
An injury-ravaged Barcelona named Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar in attackatt against winless Granada, but they had to rely on free-sc free-scoring midfielder Rafinha in a m much closer contest than anticipatedan at the Camp Nou.No The Brazilian’sB overhead kick broke the dead deadlock after 48 minu minutes after Barca toiled to break down Granada’sGrana deep lying defencedefen before the break.break Guil l e r mo Ochoa madema a fine save to preventpr a Neymar seconds shortly aftera wards, but Granada ne never threatened to end their recordre of losing in every one of th their now 24 visits to the Camp Nou.N