Real Madrid beats Alavés to move ahead of Barcelona

Withstanding the rain and cold, Real Madrid pulled off a hardfought victory against Alaves to put pressure on Barcelona at the top of the Spanish league yesterday.

Sergio Ramos and Dani Carvajal scored second-half goals as Real Madrid beat its tough Basque Country opponent 2-1 to take the league lead from Barcelona, which visits fourthplace Atlético Madrid on Sunday.

"We overcame the rain, the cold, the hard fouls," veteran Real Madrid left back Marcelo said. "It's in these types of matches that you win the league."

The result gave Madrid a threepoint advantage over Barcelona ahead of its match against Atlético, which is six points off the lead.

Real Madrid and Barcelona have a game in hand because their "clásico" match from October was postponed until Dec. 18 because of a separatist rally in the Catalan capital.

It was the third straight league win for Madrid, which is unbeaten in eight matches in all competitions.

"We knew it was a difficult fight, but we came through with the victory and earned the three points at a very difficult stadium," Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said.

Ramos scored with a header off a set piece taken by Toni Kroos in the 52nd minute, then committed the foul leading to a penalty kick for Alavés, which was converted by Lucas Pérez in the 65th. Ramos was shown a yellow card for his foul, an elbow to the face of Alavés forward Joselu.

Pérez has scored eight goals in his last nine matches. The forward had found the net in seven straight games before failing to score in Alavés' 2-0 win at Eibar last weekend.

Carvajal netted the winner from close range five minutes later off the rebound of a header by Francisco "Isco" Alarcón. Alavés goalkeeper Fernando Pacheco made an initial save against Isco's header before the ball went off the woodwork and ricocheted back toward Carvajal in front of the goal.

Alavés was coming off two straight league wins — against Valladolid and Eibar — and stayed 13th. It has only won three of its 29 league matches against Madrid.

Madrid has lost only one of its last seven away league matches, at Mallorca last month in the team's last defeat in all competitions. It was coming off a 2-2 draw at Paris Saint-Germain in the group stage of the Champions League.

Zidane opted to start against Alavés without Thibaut Courtois, who made a mistake in the first PSG goal on Tuesday. He was replaced by Alphonse Areola, whose key second-half saves secured three points for Madrid under heavy rain at the Mendizorroza Stadium.

Madrid was also without Eden Hazard, who picked up a bruise in the match against PSG. Isco started in his place, alongside Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema up front.

Bale, who was on the bench for most of the match against PSG, put in a low-key performance.