Alavés 1 - Real Madrid 5

Alavés: Dutruel; Geli, Abelardo, Karmona, Llorens; Tomic, Turiel; Edu Alonso (Ibon Begoña 60'), Jordi Cruyff (Iván Alonso 72'), Magno; Rubén Navarro (Mara 85'). 4-2-3-1.
Real Madrid: Casillas; Michel Salgado, Pavón, Iván Helguera, Roberto Carlos; Flavio Conceiçao (Solari 85'), Cambiasso (Guti 72'); Miñambres, Raúl, Zidane (Celades 77'); Ronaldo. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Alavés: Turiel for Luis Helguera / Madrid: Flavio Conceiçao, Miñambres, Zidane for Makelele, McManaman, Guti.

Goals:
0-1. 12. Ronaldo. Ran on to Raúl pass and beat defender before scoring. .
0-2. 35. Raúl. Hooked ball into net after Dutruel misjudged corner.
0-3. 66. Ronaldo. Dummied past Abelardo and hit shot under Dutruel.
1-3. 76. Iván Alonso. Header across goal following Geli free kick.
1-4. 78. Ronaldo. Ran on to long Celades pass to shoot wide of keeper.
1-5. 82. Raúl. Took Guti through ball and placed shot low past Dutruel.

Real Madrid moved top of the table for the first time this season with a 1-5 victory over Alavés. It was a powerful display by the European Champions, with Ronaldo and Raúl carving up a poor local defence with effortless ease. The Brazilian striker opened the scoring in the twelfth minute from Raúl's through ball, his step-over leaving Llorens for dead on the way, and he could have scored again a few minutes later with a shot just wide of Dutruel's goal. Raúl somehow managed to turn the ball over the bar when three metres out after Helguera headed a corner goalwards, but soon afterwards he scored Madrid's second, coming back from a possible offside position to hook a shot into the net after Dutruel had misjudged a corner and the ball had bounced off Turiel's back.

Alavés had only managed a couple of weak efforts at goal, but just before the break a great tackle from Salgado stopped Magno from finding the target. Mané had been playing Geli out of position on the left of midfield, but he changed his plans and brought Ibon Begoña on the hour mark. Soon afterwards though Ronaldo ran on to Raúl's pass to burst past Abelardo with another "bicicleta" dummy, shooting through Dutruel's legs to make it three. Iván Alonso came on for Jordi Cruyff and within four minutes had pulled a goal back with a header from Geli's free kick, but a minute later Ronaldo completed his hat-trick, once again his speed taking him past the defence for him to clip a shot wide of the keeper.

It was still not over though, and with eight minutes to go Raúl got his second of the night after Guti put him through. It was his 208th goal with the club, taking him above Hugo Sánchez in Real Madrid's all time top scorers list, and only Puskas (236), Santillana (290) and Di Stéfano (307) stand between him and a place in history. Real Sociedad's defeat on Sunday confirms Del Bosque's side in top spot, and they must now be firm favourites for the title. There was some bad news for the manager though, Iván Helguera limping off near the end with an ankle injury which could keep him on the sidelines for a couple of weeks or so. Alavés drop to seventeenth in what is a very close league table, and having now let in eleven goals in two games they could do without a visit to Real Sociedad next week. For the first time in a long time Mané is under fire, and he really needs a couple of good results to take off the pressure.