Real Madrid moved three points clear on top of La Liga by pumping 7 goals past Osasuna in a midday kick-off at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid as Barcelona were held 2-2 by Athletic Bilbao.
The chief architects of Real Madrid’s victory were Angel di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored yet another hat trick – his 12th since joining Madrid from Manchester United for a world record fee of 94 million Euros.
A few days back, Ronaldo collected the European Golden boot award for his fantastic tally in the last year. And he followed that up with a wonderful hat trick – a pair of exquisite headers followed by a neatly taken spot kick.
The first goal came after some good work on the right from Brazilian playmaker Kaka. He cut in from the right wing and played a perfect cross to Ronaldo who did not miss from the edge of the six yard box. The header was extremely well placed and was a sign of things to come.
Thereafter, Osasuna won a controversial free kick on the edge of the area which they took extremely early. It surprised the Madrid defenders who could do nothing as Ibrahima Balde stroked the ball past the oncoming Iker Casillas.
Soon after, Real hit back to level the scores through Pepe, who met Angel di Maria’s inch perfect cross at the far post and sent it past the keeper. The approach play for this goal was absolutely brilliant from di Maria on the wide right.
Gonzalo Higuain then left the defenders stranded to curl one past the keeper as the likes of Ozil and di Maria conjured up some magic on the left side of the box to make proceedings look very simple for Real.
At the start of the second half, Real dominated proceedings as Mesut Ozil was sent clean through on goal after a fantastic through ball. He was fouled inside the area as the Osasuna defenders failed to make a clean tackle. Cristiano Ronaldo converted the penalty kick to the anguish of the Osasuna fans.
Real offered no respite for Osasuna as a neat pass from Ozil was crossed over by Alvaro Arbeloa for Ronaldo to rise above the defenders and head past the stranded keeper.
Karim Benzema added two late goals in the second half as Real Madrid finished the day with a 7-1 win over their rivals that led to the los blancos gaining a valuable 3 point lead at the top of the La Liga standings.