First Division - Day 28

Real Madrid 7 - Celta 1

Madrid: Keylor Navas; Dani Carvajal (Marcelo 77‘), Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Danilo; Kovacic, Casemiro, Isco (Bale 65‘); Lucas Vázquez, Borja Mayoral (Jesé 69‘), Ronaldo. 4-3-3.
Celta: Rubén Blanco; Jonny, Hugo Mallo, Sergi Gómez, Planas; Daniel Wass (Beauvue 77‘), Marcelo Díaz; Orellana, Pablo Hernández (Radoja 34‘), Nolito; Iago Aspas (Guidetti 66’). 4-2-3-1.

Goals:
1-0. 41. Pepe. Got above defence to head Isco corner inside far post.
2-0. 50. Ronaldo. Struck shot over Rubén Blanco from outside of area.
3-0. 58. Ronaldo. Curled free kick over defensive wall inside near post.
3-1. 62. Iago Aspas. Ran on to long clearance and lobbed ball over Navas.
4-1. 64. Ronaldo. Got on the end of Isco cross to turn shot past keeper.
5-1. 76. Ronaldo. Steered header wide of keeper from Jesé corner.
6-1. 78. Jesé. Won ball off Radoja in midfield and cut across area to score.
7-1. 81. Bale. Picked up ball in own half and ran on to shoot in off far post.

Yellow cards: Danilo 25’, Pepe 29’, Nolito 40’, Jonny 59’, Orellana 85’.

Third placed Real Madrid closed to within a point of Atlético pending their game on Sunday after Zidane’s side thrashed sixth placed Celta 7-1 on Saturday afternoon. It took them a bit to get going though, and they could have gone behind early on when Iago Aspas headed against the bar and then fired the rebound at Keylor Navas. Young keeper Rubén Blanco had to save from Ronaldo, Isco and Casemiro though, and with four minutes to go to the break Pepe got on the end of Isco’s corner to head in the opener. That opened the floodgates, and soon after the restart Ronaldo added two more, the first with a shot over the keeper from outside of the area, and the second with a free kick into the roof of the net. Aspas got one back on a quick breakaway, but Ronaldo combined with Lucas Vázquez and Isco to complete a hat-trick, and soon afterwards he headed his fourth of the match from Jesé’s corner, a goal which takes him past the mythical Zarra as Spain’s second best goal-scorer of all time (behind Messi, of course). Jesé himself made it six after winning the ball off Radoja in midfield, and Bale signalled his return to the side after an injury lay-off to run on from his own half to round things off. A great result, but points dropped in recent matches mean that they are still nine points behind leaders Barcelona.