Real came out unscathed out of their biggest remaining challenge to defeat a Sevilla side unbeaten at home for more than a year thanks to Ronaldo’s heroics. PHOTO: AFP
MADRID: A Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick maintained Real Madrid’s La Liga title aspirations as they ended Sevilla’s 34-game unbeaten run at home with a 3-2 win on Saturday.
Victory kept the European champions just two points behind Barcelona with three games to play after Luis Suarez scored his first hat-trick for the Catalans in an 8-0 humiliation of relegated Cordoba.
“It was not easy to win here and we have managed it. We are very happy and we keep fighting,” said Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti. “It is not by coincidence that they haven’t lost for 34 games at this stadium.”
The game swung massively in Real’s favour in the space of two first-half minutes whilst Sevilla were down to 10 men as Grzegorz Krychowiak was off the field receiving treatment for a facial injury. Sevilla twice halved Real’s two-goal lead to set up a nervy finale but the European champions managed to hang on in the end.
Ronaldo’s 29th Real hat-trick took him onto 42 La Liga goals for the campaign, two ahead of Lionel Messi who netted twice as Barca condemned Cordoba to relegation in embarrassing fashion.
Cordoba, who have not won since January, held out for 42 minutes, but a four-goal blitz in 11 minutes either side of half-time ended their return to the top flight after just one season.
“Until the first goal we had created a lot of chances and were fearing it wouldn’t be our day,” said Barca boss Luis Enrique. “The goals from Ivan [Rakitic] and Suarez helped us and in the second-half we were very effective in front of goal.”
Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid failed to nail down third place and an automatic return to the Champions League next season as they were held 0-0 at home by Athletic Bilbao.
Atletico had two second-half goals wrongly ruled out for offside through Antoine Griezmann and Tiago as the Basques held on for a point which moves them up to seventh.
Diego Simeone’s men now lead Sevilla by seven points in the battle for the Champions League places, with Valencia also fighting it out.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 4th, 2015.
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