Cristiano Ronaldo shrugged off the controversy surrounding his comments in the wake of Sunday’s derby defeat at Atletico as he steered Real Madrid back to winning ways on Wednesday night.
Ronaldo had risked the wrath of his team-mates by insisting some players were not up to his level after the 1-0 home defeat which effectively spelled the end of his side’s title aspirations.
But he opened the scoring with a 32nd minute penalty as Zinedine Zidane’s depleted line-up struggled to impress in a relatively routine 3-1 win away to bottom club Levante.
Real – missing the injured Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema plus suspended duo Sergio Ramos and Dani Carvajal – increased their lead through an own goal from home keeper Diego Marino.
Deyverson quickly pulled one back for the hosts before half-time but after a largely frustrating second half, Isco finally wrapped up the points with Real’s third in injury time.
Gary Neville’s Valencia took advantage of a freakish own goal by home keeper Carlos Kameni to win 2-1 at Malaga.
Neville’s men had slipped behind to Duje Cop’s 14th-minute opener before Kameni completely misjudged a harmless cross from the left and palmed it into his own net.
His 41st-minute blunder handed Valencia the boost they needed and Denis Cheryshev went to grab what turned out to be the winner four minutes into the second half.
Aritz Aduriz scored a hat-trick to take his tally for the season to 30 as Athletic Bilbao cruised to back-to-back league wins by beating Deportivo La Coruna 4-1.
Iker Muniain gave Bilbao an early lead and veteran Spanish striker Aduriz struck before the break and twice in the second period after Oriel Riera had given Deportivo brief hope when making it 2-1 in the 51st minute.
Villarreal extended their unbeaten league run to 14 matches and remain fourth in La Liga following a goalless draw at Celta Vigo.
Cedric Bakambu went closest to breaking the deadlock for Villarreal in the first half but the striker was denied on three occasions by Celta goalkeeper Sergio Alvarez.
Spain international Fernando Llorente struck the only goal as Sevilla maintained their impressive home record with a hard-fought 1-0 win against Eibar.
Striker Llorente was on target early in the second half to edge Sevilla back to winning ways after Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at Barcelona had halted a seven-game unbeaten league run.
