Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo scored five goals between them as Real Madrid romped to a 7-3 win in a thrilling clash with Sevilla on Wednesday.
Ronaldo
struck a first-half penalty before netting twice in the second period
to become the club's fourth-highest Liga goalscorer with 157 goals, one
more than the legendary Ferenc Puskas.
On a record-breaking night at Santiago Bernabeu, Bale also capped his first start at home with two first-half strikes.
Madrid
saw their 3-0 lead reduced before the break as an Ivan Rakitic penalty
and close-range strike from Carlos Bacca brought the visitors to within a
goal.
The hosts, however, turned on the style in the second half
as Karim Benzema and Ronaldo both found the net twice to seal a
comfortable victory, despite Rakitic curling home a third for the
visitors. Rakitic also missed from the spot and Stephane M'Bia was sent
off for two yellow cards in a frantic encounter.
Carlo Ancelotti
made four changes from Saturday's Clasico defeat to Barcelona, while
Sevilla - without an away win in 13 months - made a single change from
their victory over Osasuna.
Madrid enjoyed the perfect start following a low-key performance at Camp Nou and took the lead through Bale in the 14th minute.
Isco
ran the ball out of his own half and played a neat ball into Benzema,
the Frenchman rolled the ball back into the Wales international and he
fired into the top corner.
Sevilla were struggling to find any
end product despite neat build-up play when they did have the ball, and
their task became even tougher when Bale netted his second of the night.
Madrid
were awarded a free kick 25 yards from goal after a crude challenge by
Rakitic on Ronaldo in the 26th minute. Bale took the set piece and saw
his effort deflect off the wall to wrong-foot Beto as it flew into the
opposite corner.
The hosts moved 3-0 ahead after some poor
defending from Fernando Navarro allowed Isco to dispossess him on the
edge of the area. The defender then brought the forward down inside the
area and Ronaldo made no mistake from the spot.
Sevilla
were given a way back into the game when Sergio Ramos bundled Diogo
Figueiras to the floor in the 38th minute and they had a penalty of
their own.
Rakitic grabbed the ball and made no mistake with a well-placed spot-kick for his first goal of the season.
And the visitors reduced the deficit even further two minutes later as Vitolo and Jairo Samperio combined well to give Bacca the easy task of firing into the empty goal.
Unai
Emery's side should have levelled early in the second half after
creating a fantastic opening for Jairo, but he was unable to convert it
and the hosts broke on the counterattack with Ronaldo.
Ronaldo found Bale on the right who delivered a low cross to Benzema and the Frenchman fired home to end a seven-game run without a goal.
On the hour mark, Ronaldo netted his second of the game after meeting a cross from Bale to fire past Beto, but Rakitic kept his side in the game with an exquisite finish from the edge of the area after neat work from substitute Diego Perotti.
But the night belonged to Portugal international Ronaldo as he completed his hat-trick in the 71st minute before Benzema
added his second in the 80th minute to secure the win, with Rakitic
slamming a spot kick against the crossbar in between Madrid's sixth and
seventh goals.
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