Cristiano Ronaldo returned to goalscoring form with his first hat-trick of the season and also missed a penalty as Real Madrid extended their lead at the top of La Liga with a 4-1 win at Alaves yesterday.
 Ronaldo’s wayward form in recent weeks had come under the spotlight — he was booed by Real fans after missing one chance recently — but he turned the game around after Deyverson had put Alaves into a shock early lead.
 Ronaldo levelled from the penalty spot before his deflected effort put Madrid ahead at the break.
 The Portuguese saw another penalty saved 12 minutes from time, but wasn’t to be denied when he slammed home Marcelo’s cut-back after Alvaro Morata’s cushioned lob had made the game safe.
 Real now lead Sevilla by three points at the top of the table and Barcelona by five.
 However, Barca can cut the gap back to two points with victory at home to Granada later on Saturday.
 “We are always going to demand goals from Cristiano, but he was good in all aspects,” said Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane. “We knew how to suffer because the first half and the start of the second weren’t comfortable or easy. But playing like this, if you know how to suffer and then add a bit of movement, we know what we can do.”
 Real’s unbeaten run stretches to 26 matches, but their defensive struggles continued in Vitoria as Zidane’s men got off to the worst possible start when Deyverson pounced on an error from goalkeeper Keylor Navas to slot Alaves into a seventh-minute lead.
 The visitors needed two slices of fortune to turn the game around before half-time. Firstly, Deyverson was adjudged to have handled a Bale free-kick inside his own area and Ronaldo slotted home the penalty.
 Ronaldo’s second came 16 minutes later when his low effort from outside the area deflected off Zouhair Feddal and flew into the far corner.
 Alaves had a huge chance to level just two minutes after the restart when Victor Camarasa skipped past Raphael Varane, but shot straight at Navas.
 Madrid barely threatened in the second half until the last 15 minutes when they finally put the game beyond Alaves’ reach.
 Ronaldo was hauled down inside the penalty area from a corner, but saw his second spot-kick saved by Fernando Pacheco.
 Morata again made his presence felt off the bench as he raced onto Marcelo’s through ball and lobbed the onrushing Pacheco for his fourth goal as a substitute this season.
 And Marcelo was involved again in the fourth as he and Ronaldo exchanged passes before the latter smashed home two minutes from time.
 Earlier, Sevilla’s struggles away from home continued in a 1-1 draw at Sporting Gijon. Sevilla snapped a 22-game winless streak on the road in their last away league game at Leganes and got off to the perfect start in Asturias when Luciano Vietto raced onto Wissam Ben Yedder’s flick-on to dink home his fourth goal of the season.
 Sporting are now without a win in seven matches, but moved out of the relegation zone as Moi Gomez volleyed home Roberto Canella’s cross for a share of the points.
Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid remain just three points back of their city rivals thanks to doubles from Yannick Carrasco and Kevin Gameiro in a nervy 4-2 win over Malaga despite playing with 10 men for the final half hour.
Atletico bounced back from their first defeat of the season at Sevilla last weekend, but made life difficult for themselves against Malaga.
Carrasco fired home his sixth goal in his last six games to put Atletico in front before Gameiro took advantage of some slack Malaga defending to double the lead inside 25 minutes.
Sandro Ramirez’s stunning free-kick brought Malaga back into the game, but Gameiro restored Atletico’s two-goal lead when he latched onto Antoine Griezmann’s flick-on to make it 3-1 just before the break.
However, Stefan Savic picked up two quickfire yellow cards to leave Atletico a man short for the final half hour.
Ignacio Camacho headed home from a corner to cut Malaga’s deficit once more, but Carrasco showed stunning speed
and produced an unerring finish into the far corner to seal the points four minutes from time.
Results
Sporting Gijon 1    Sevilla 1
Alaves 1    Real Madrid 4
Atletico Madrid    Malaga