Real Madrid 6 - Betis 1

Madrid: Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Cannavaro (Sneijder 46'), Pepe, Heinze; Higuaín (Robben 46'), Lass, Gago, Marcelo; Huntelaar, Raúl (Guti 46'). 4-4-2.
Betis: Ricardo; Nelson, Melli, Arzu (Juanma 79'), Fernando Vega; Juande (Monzón 52'), Mehmet Aurelio; Damià, Emaná (Rivera 60'), Mark González; Oliveira. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Madrid: Gago, Marcelo, Huntelaar for Robben, Sneijder, Van der Vaart / Betis: Nelson, Arzu, Damià for Ilic, Juanito, Sergio García.

Goals:
1-0. 07. Higuaín. Picked up Raúl's headed pass and rounded Ricardo to score.
2-0. 15. Huntelaar. Fired shot back to net after Ricardo failed to hold Heinze cross.
3-0. 24. Huntelaar. Following up after keeper pushed his header on to crossbar.
3-1. 30. Oliveira. Picked up ball in midfield and fired long shot wide of Casillas.
4-1. 36. Raúl. Connected with Marcelo cross and curled shot inside near post.
5-1. 42. Raúl. Ran on to Gago pass and scooped shot over head of keeper.
6-1. 45. Sergio Ramos. Got behind defence to head Heinze free kick in to net.

Yellow cards: Emaná 34', Oliveira 42', Arzu 45', Heinze 81'.

Real Madrid are going from strength to strength under Juande Ramos, and they closed the gap on leaders Barcelona to seven points after thrashing Betis 6-1. Incredibly, all the goals came in the first half, with Higuaín starting things off after Raúl headed on a long ball. And Huntelaar added two more with a quarter of the game gone, the first after a mistake by Ricardo and the second after the keeper had pushed his header from Sergio Ramos's cross on to the crossbar.

Oliveira got one back a few minutes later with a long shot which beat Casillas, who had passed a late fitness test to play. And a couple of minutes later the striker should have scored a second when the keeper misdirected a clearance straight to him, his angled shot hitting the post,

That was about it though for the visitors, and within the next ten minutes Raúl helped himself to two excellent goals, the first with a first time shot wide of Ricardo and the second with a lob over the head of the keeper. And with the first half coming to a close Sergio Ramos got in on the act to complete the "set". With the Liverpool game coming up on Wednesday the coach made three changes at the break, and other than a shot from Huntelaar against the post, the second half went by without too much to shout about.