Cristiano Ronaldo ended his goal drought with a timely hat-trick as Real Madrid kept top spot in the Spanish Liga with a 4-1 romp at midtable Alaves on Saturday. The handsome win left Real two points above Barcelona, who surprisingly struggled to beat bottom team Granada 1-0 at home later on. Real went a goal behind at Alaves but quickly recovered, thanks to Ronaldo finally rediscovering his goal touch. With only four goals from nine appearances before the trip to Alaves, Ronaldo was going through one of the poorest patches of his career - by his own standards. The Portuguese made it 2-1 with a shot which took a cruel deflection off Alaves defender Zouhair Feddal. In a one-sided second half, Ronaldo had a second dubious penalty saved by Alaves keeper Fernando Pacheco but Morata soon made it 3-1 then Ronaldo completed his hat-trick and the rout. Later on, Barcelona stumbled into second place in the Spanish Liga with a lacklustre 1-0 home defeat of bottom team Granada. The only goal of the dull, disappointing encounter came four minutes into the second half, when Rafinha broke the deadlock with an overhead kick after a shot from Neymar had rebounded off the post. Atletico caned midtable Malaga 4-2, with two goals apiece from Yannick Carrasco and Kevin Gameiro. Atletico had Stefan Savic sent off while Malaga's Gonzalo Castro was also dismissed. Sando and Ignacio Camacho scored for Malaga, who are 11th.
