Ronaldo’s Hat-Trick Downs Atletico Madrid

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo netted his 39th career hat-trick against rivals Atletico Madrid in a decisive 3-0 win in the last Madrid derby to be played in Atletico’s Vicente Calderon Stadium.

The Portuguese midfielder scored a deflected first half free kick and added a penalty and a tap-in after the break to seal the win and kill off any hopes of a second half Atletico revival.

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The win leaves Real nine points clear of their neighbours and takes them five ahead of Barca, who could only draw against Malaga.

Real’s Isco was brilliant in the game and seemed to be everywhere on the pitch.

The visitors began to carve out a series of chances and Jan Oblak had to be at his best to block a Ronaldo header on the line.

Real Madrid were controlling the ball as Atletico wasted possession in a series of long passes and after Luka Modric saw a shot saved by Oblak they took the lead.

There was more than a stroke of luck as Ronaldo’s free kick found a gap in the Atletico wall and took a big deflection to leave Oblak helpless.

Ronaldo could have added a second on the half hour as he turned his marker, but was unable to beat Oblak with another low shot.

The rest of the half saw the same tonic as the home side tried and failed to test Keylor Navas in the Real Madrid goal.

Atletico came out strongly after the break with Carrasco and Antoine Griezmann both fired wide, but it was virtually game over in the 70th minute when Stefan Savic was adjudged to have fouled Ronaldo in the penalty area and the Portuguese striker sent Oblak the wrong way from the spot.

Six minutes later he was on hand to tap home a Bale cross after a counter-attack and that was the sign for some home fans to start leaving. It was then that the game seemed over even with 15 minutes to play.

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