Real Madrid kept the pressure on title rivals Atletico Madrid and Barcelona at the top of La Liga with an impressive 6-0 victory over Espanyol.
Karim Benzema set the tone early on with the opening goal before goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, James Rodriguez and another from Ronaldo before half-time all but secured the three points.
Zinedine Zidane’s side took their foot off the accelerator in the second period but weren’t finished with the goal scoring with Ronaldo’s third and an own goal from Ruben Duarte in the final ten minutes finishing off the convincing victory.
Straight out of the traps
Benzema thought he had given the home side three minutes in when he attempted to tap home from Ronaldo’s deflected effort but the flag was up but he had to wait four minutes to give Madrid the lead.
Luka Modric did well on the byline to get the ball into Rodriguez and the Colombian’s inch-perfect ball is met perfectly by Benzema as his header found his way past Giedrius Arlauskis.
They doubled it up only four minutes later when Ronaldo was brought down by Enzo Roco and referee Alejandro Jose Hernandez Hernandez had no choice but to point to the spot.
The Portuguese talisman stood over the spot kick and made no mistake as despite Arlauskis guessing the right way the low shot managed to get beyond the keeper to double the lead.
It didn’t stop there as a third was added in the 17th minute. The ball came to Rodriguez on the right-hand edge of the area and his effort was hugely deflected by Papakouli Diop which caught Arlauskis off guard and all but ended the contest before the 20-minute mark.
Ronaldo rounds off half
Espanyol had a great chance to get one back just before the break but Slava Sevilla failed to beat Keylor Navas but Ronaldo certainly made no mistakes when he added a fourth right on the stroke of half-time.
Madrid immediately broke from Sevilla’s missed opportunity with the ball making its way to Ronaldo who spearheaded the attack and did brilliantly to hit his powerful shot from outside the box which gave Arlauskis no chance.
Half-chances
The beginning of the second period didn’t quite live up to the hype but there was a few opportunities for both sides.
It was Espanyol who had the first opportunity in the 55th minute when Fuentes managed to make his way forward and tested Navas with the low effort but the Costa Rican did well.
Ronaldo turned provider just after hour mark when he made his way to the byline and dinked it towards the centre of the area looking for Benzema but his header was straight at Arlauskis.
Ronaldo had the best opportunity to complete his hat-trick and a fifth in the 69th minute when he tried a free-kick from the left-hand edge of the area and it looked destined for the goal but it was just a few inches wide of the mark.
Game rounded off
After missing such a great opportunity Ronaldo managed to complete his set of strikes with eight minutes to play.
There was some good interchange out on the left between Rodriguez and Jesse Rodriguez before the substitute curled a cross into an unmarked and he made no mistake with the close-range header.
The final action of the match all but sealed the win with the sixth and final goal with four minutes to play.
It was the substitute Rodriguez that was causing problems once again when he but a dangerous driven cross into the area and Duarte could only put the cross beyond his own keeper to round off a miserable afternoon.