Real on verge of title after Ronaldo-inspired victory

BARCELONA (Reuters) – An insatiable Cristiano Ronaldo fired Real Madrid to a 4-1 win over Celta Vigo on Wednesday night to take Zinedine Zidane’s side three points clear at the top of La Liga and within touching distance of winning a first league title in five years.

Real tops the standings on 90 points, meaning it needs just one point from its remaining league game at Malaga on Sunday to finish ahead of Barcelona and lift a first title since Jose Mourinho’s 2012 success.

Ronaldo lashed into the near corner from outside the area to put Real in charge in the 10th minute with a goal that moved him ahead of former England striker Jimmy Greaves as the alltime leading scorer in Europe’s top five leagues on 367 goals.

The prolific Portuguese doubled his and Real’s tally in the 48th minute by latching onto a through ball from the impressive Isco and tucking it in off the near post to take Madrid closer still to a 33rd league success.

Celta’s Iago Aspas was later sent off for a second booking for diving although the home side briefly clawed their way back into the match when John Guidetti’s deflected strike looped over Keylor Navas in the 69th minute.

Karim Benzema quickly extinguished any comeback hopes by nudging home a Marcelo cutback and the Frenchman and Ronaldo each wasted chances late on to add to the scoring before Toni Kroos knocked in the fourth in the 88th minute.

“The most difficult part is still to come even though we’re getting closer to the title every day,” Zidane told reporters.

“We have one game left, but today was very important. We know what we need to do, we need to prepare well and recover from today as we gave so much. I don’t feel like we’re the champions yet, we still need to pick up more points and keep on with what we’re doing.”