Two-goal Ron’s not Sporting
Prolific Cristiano Ronaldo made it eight goals in four La Liga games as his double saw off struggling Sporting Gijon to move Real Madrid seven points clear in Spain.
The Portuguese put Real ahead from the penalty spot in the fifth minute and dived in to head the second in the 18th to go top of the scoring charts with 10 strikes this season.
Despite the early goal, Real struggled to dominate at a rainswept Bernabeu and Carlos Carmona pulled one back for the away side 10 minutes before half-time.
Sporting blew a golden chance to level in the 78th minute after Nacho was punished for a shove on Victor Rodriguez. Duje Cop sent the penalty sailing over the bar to hand Real a lucky sixth successive league victory.
Madrid extended their unbeaten start in the league to 13 matches but boss Zinedine Zidane said: “I am not very happy with how we played. It is most disappointing as we had the match in our hands with the two goals.
“We made it difficult for ourselves but we can only be happy as we remain top of the table and have kept our good run going.”
Bayern Munich bounced back from defeat to Borussia Dortmund a week ago with a 2-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen that cemented second place in the Bundesliga.
Thiago Alcantara and Mats Hummels were on target for the German champions.
Hakan Calhonoglu’s goal was not enough for a spirited Leverkusen who left the Allianz Arena emptyhanded and stuck in mid-table.
Dortmund were stunned by an improving Eintracht Frankfurt side who replaced Thomas Tuchel’s team in the Bundesliga’s top three with a 2-1 win at the Waldstadion.
Szabolcs Huszti and Haris Seferovic scored for Niko Kovac’s men who then had to withstand a Dortmund attack that was only rewarded with one goal for PierreEmerick Aubameyang.