Real Madrid will hope to have more weekends like this winning their fixture against Sevilla 4-0 while title rivals Barcelona and Atletico Madrid both dropping points. Real Madrid are now only 1 point behind city rivals, Atletico, but still a mammoth 10 points behind Catalans, Barcelona.
Los Blancos started the first half brightly with Gareth Bale often linking up excellent with the ever-reliable Luka Modric. The two former Tottenham Hotspur stars seem to be in the mood since the get go and Sevilla had a tough time ensure the two of them didn't influence the game that much.
While Modric was often at the other end of Bale's passes, Real Madrid opened the scoring with Karim Benzema lacing a pinpoint cross from the Welshman on the right. Through on the right, Bale took on two defenders, cut inside one and drove the ball into the centre of the box. Benzema's finish flew past the keeper and gave Madrid some much-needed momentum heading into this tricky fixture.
A few minutes later, Real Madrid conceded a penalty due to a poor Raphael Varane tackle but as has been all season, Keylor Navas stepped up and saved the effort from the spot reiterating his brilliant form throughout.
Just as Sevilla ended the first half, Real Madrid begun the second: a missed penalty – this time by Ronaldo – a few misplaced passes and coming close to often conceding goals. While you don't expect Cristiano Ronaldo to scuffle the chance of a penalty, it did happen with the Portuguese captain skying his effort disappointing the fans and surprisingly, even plenty of his teammates.
Soon after said incident, Ronaldo redeemed himself with an excellent goal from another accurate cross, this time from right-back Danilo. The Brazilian was fed the ball by Modric and then proceeded to put in an excellent cross behind the defence and ahead of the goalkeeper – exactly where Ronaldo was – for the 3-time Ballon d'Or winner to tuck away.
A minute and a half later, Bale tripled Real Madrid's lead thanks to the excellent efforts of Ronaldo and Benzema whose final pass by a dink over the keeper that the Welshman just needed tap-in rounding off a performance worthy of this transfer fee and stature.
With Sevilla all but zapped of motivation, Jese produced a wonderful moment of trickery and confidence scoring past the keeper to make it 4-0 to home crowd. The youngster has impressed the Bernabeu and Zinedine Zidane with his performances this season and will look to push on with a more senior role come the start of next season.
With this win, Real Madrid move within 1 point of their city rivals. Next up for the club is the ever-entertaining El Clasico against arch-rivals Barcelona. With the players all departing for international duty this week, this victory was much needed to ensure spirits were high heading into the final stretch of the Liga BBVA.
