Goals from Isco, Gareth Bale and a brace from goal-scoring machine Cristiano Ronaldo secured a 20th consecutive win for manager Carlo Ancelotti's men, meaning that they move five points clear at the top of the Liga BBVA table ahead of the rest of the weekend's fixtures.

The visitors came close to breaking the deadlock early on; German midfielder Toni Kroos had a stinging deflected strike smack off the top of the crossbar after 13 minutes. Benzema was denied by a good anticipated stop from 'keeper Martinez, just a few minutes afterwards - but Real did eventually take the lead in the 33rd minute thanks to some individual brilliance from creative midfielder Isco. He weaved past his marker inside the area after a teasing cross from the wing, controlled the ball with composure, cut past him and unleashed a curling shot beyond the goalkeeper, who dived despairingly towards the effort but was unable to save it.

Almeria midfielder Verza equalised five minutes afterwards, with a piledriver hit on the edge of the area beyond Casillas into the bottom corner of the net. However, Ancelotti's men pushed back into the lead in the 41st minute courtesy of a powerfully headed finish from the Welsh wizard Gareth Bale himself.

In the second-half, things started to get interesting. Bale saw his counter attacking one-on-one with the 'keeper fired wide, before full-back Marcelo brought down winger Mendez in the area and conceded a penalty. Luckily enough for the Brazillian defender, Casillas managed to parry away Verza's resulting penalty kick, otherwise the match could have gone in a completely different way.

Some great passing combination play between BBC resulted in the third goal after 81 minutes, from which Ronaldo simply could not miss. Bale back-flicked the ball towards the Portuguese forward, who looked up and squared a pass into Benzema's feet. The Frenchman passed back with a slick slot, and the in-form man made a mockery of the goalkeeper to make it 3-1.

Spanish full-back Carvajal beat his defensive marker for pace, before sprinting to the byline and dragged the ball back towards Ronaldo - who made it 4-1 to put the icing on the cake in the 88th minute.

Here is the full table after that result, with fixtures galore this weekend.