Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick to make it an incredible 36 league goals in the current campaign as Real Madrid defeated local rivals Getafe 4-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday to prevent Barcelona from winning the league title for at least one more day. If Real had failed to win, Barcelona would have been crowned champions without playing, but Pep Guardiola’s side need a point from their final three matches, with Wednesday’s match at Levante the first opportunity, to collect a third successive league crown.
The league may seem lost, but Ronaldo has his own agenda to become the league’s top-scorer and followed up his quadruple against Sevilla last time out with a hat-trick. The Portuguese star is now in the box seat to win the Pichichi crown for the league’s top-scorer with his 36-goal haul taking him five goals ahead of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi. Ronaldo is now within sight of the all-time Pichichi record, which is held by Real Madrid’s Mexican forward Hugo Sanchez and Athletic Bilbao legend Telmo Zarra who scored 38 goals in 1990 and 1951 respectively.
Getafe were Ronaldo’s latest victims and their 18th defeat of the season leaves them hovering one point above the bottom three with two games left. Earlier Deportivo La Coruna took a giant step towards safety with a 2-1 comeback home win over European hopefuls Athletic Bilbao at the Riazor stadium on Tuesday. In other matches, Malaga made it five consecutive league wins for the first time in their history with a 2-0 home victory over relegation rivals Sporting Gijon on Tuesday.
Brazilian Julio Baptista scored for the fifth successive game with a ninth minute opener as Malaga moved six points clear of the relegation zone and to the brink of safety.