Real Madrid ran away with a fairly easy tie at the Santiago Bernabeu as they put ten past Rayo Vallecano with Gareth Bale netting a super hat trick in the process.
Real Madrid strike early but Rayo comeback
Coming in as favorites in this fixture, Real Madrid struck quickly to open the scoring in the 3rd minute. Following a blocked shot, Real Madrid went on the counter quickly and a cross in from Gareth Bale was met by the right foot of Danilo and it was 1-0 Real. With the early goal, it looked like Real Madrid had taken control of the game and were on cruise control from there.
But Rayo struck back with two quick goals to give them the shock lead in the Bernabeu. First, it was a header from Antonio Amaya off a corner that was the equalizer for a struggling Rayo team. Then two minutes later they took the lead off another header, this time it was from Jozabed.
Bale brings back Real
Right after they took the lead, things went south for Rayo: Tito was shown a straight red card in the 14th for a foul on Toni Kroos.
Real Madrid got their equalizer ten minutes after that following a corner. When Sergio Ramo's header went awry, Bale was there to clean up the miss with a header of his own; that one hit the back of the net and Real were tied.
Things got even uglier for Rayo in the 35th minute as Ramos was taken down in the penalty area by Raul Buena and the defender was shown a second yellow. Ronaldo then converted the penalty and Rayo were down to nine men and now found themselves losing.
Bale made it a two goal for Real when a through ball by James Rodriguez send him through on goal and he converted to make it 4-2.
Real Madrid pile it on in the second half
Real Madrid started off quickly in the second half as Karim Benzema got on the score sheet as he made it 5-2 for Real Madrid.
At this point it was like a scrimmage for Real Madrid after they kept shooting at the Rayo goal. Ronaldo was the next one to get on the scoresheet again in the 53th minute to make it 6-2 for Real Madrid.
Given the score of the game, many would have thought that Rafa Benetiz would have been comfortable taking out his big stars given the result was secured. But that wasn't the case as Real Madrid kept attacking.
Bale ended up getting his hatrick in the 61st minute and later added his fourth as he got in on goal and slid it into the net in the 70th minute. Benzema scored two of his own goals in the final twenty minutes to make it a staggering ten goals for Real Madrid on the night.
It was a epic comeback win for Madrid as they kept pace with Barcelona who were idle this week in La Liga.