Goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, Danilo, and Marcelo have helped Real Madrid to a 3-1 win at 10-man Celta Vigo and fired them to the top of La Liga.
The visitors controlled the opening stages of the game and took a deserved lead in the eighth minute when Ronaldo latched onto Lucas Vazquez's low cross and scrambled the ball beyond Sergio Alvarez.
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Celta were almost level within five minutes as Iago Aspas got his head to a corner, but his effort flashed over the crossbar.
The hosts threatened again in the 17th minute when a long ball caused problems inside the Real box. Fabian Orellana got his head to it, but directed his effort straight into the arms of Keylor Navas.
Navas was all that stopped Celta from equalising moments later, as the goalkeeper was on hand to tip a powerful strike from Orellana around the post for a corner.
Real doubled their lead in the 23rd minute through Brazilian defender Danilo, who smashed one into the top corner after collecting a pass from Jese.
Celta looked determined to pull a goal back before half time, and would have gotten one if was not for the good form of Navas.
The Real goalkeeper kept out a mini onslaught in the run-up to half time, keeping Aspas and Pablo Hernandez at bay to maintain the two-goal cushion.
It was a tighter contest in the second half, with fewer clear-cut chances, but tensions boiled over in the 58th minute as Celta were reduced to 10 men after Gustavo Cabral picked up a second yellow card for dissent.
Real went in search of a third in the 66th minute as Ronaldo found space to shoot inside the box, only to be denied by the reflexes of Alvarez.
Celta came agonisingly close to pulling one back in the 73rd minute. Nolito found space in the area and beat Navas with a low strike, only for Marcelo to clear his shot off the line.
They finally reduced the deficit five minutes from time when Nolito smashed an unstoppable strike into the top corner, and the outcome of the match could have been very different if John Guidetti's effort had ended up on the right side of the post moments later.
Real killed the game off six minutes into stoppage time through Marcelo, whose close-range tap-in compounded the home side's misery.
Mark Langshaw
