Real Madrid beat Eibar 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday to close the gap on leaders Barcelona back to five points at the top of La Liga, according to dpa. Real Madrid's first goal came on 19 minutes when Marco Asensio crossed and Paulo Oliveira headed past his own goalkeeper to make it 1-0. Eibar keeper Marko Dmitrovic was then beaten by a smartly taken shot from Asensio on 28 minutes after Isco had crossed from the left. Marcelo and Karim Benzema both came on as second half substitutes and combined to get the third. Benzema started the move with a back heel and then reappeared on the edge of the area to play in Marcelo who scored his first goal of the season. Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said: "I'm very pleased to keep the clean sheet. And the third goal made me happy too because it was such a good goal. "We can play better and we know that, but there were a lot of changes in the team for this game and we still got the result we wanted." Zidane defended Benzema in the build-up to the game after former player Gary Lineker had suggested the French forward was "over-rated". Asked about Benzema's assist for the third goal of the night, Zidane said: "Karim is not just a number nine he is a bit of everything and that is why I like him. Football is not just who scores the goals." Eibar coach Jose Luis Mendilibar lamented: "They are not just good going forward they are also very good defensively. We had plenty of the ball but we were not able to carve out a single clear-cut chance." The win moved Real Madrid back into second above Atletico Madrid who had earlier beaten Celta Vigo 1-0. Kevin Gameiro scored the only goal of the game on 28 minutes with his first of the season for Atletico Madrid. Celta Vigo hit the bar through Iago Aspas and threatened to equalize throughout but Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak ensured his side took all three points.
