Ronaldo hat-trick keeps title race alive

Madrid, May 3:

Cristiano Ronaldo scored the 25th La Liga hat-trick of his career to steer Real Madrid to a vital 3-2 win away to Sevilla which maintains his side’s chances of winning the BBVA Primera Liga title alive.

Real Madrid kicked of knowing that anything other than a win would have seen their hopes of winning the title disappear, but they took advantage of a bad tactical error from Sevilla coach, Unai Emery who left his side with 10 men for over 10 minutes to allow Grzegorz Krtchowiak to receive treatment, Xinhua reported.

Ronaldo scored two goals in two minutes in that period and although Carlos Bacca pulled one back from the penalty spot, Ronaldo completed his hat-trick and scored his 42nd league goal of the campaign with a hanging header.

Vicente Iborra pulled Sevilla back into the game with 12 minutes remaining, but despite several goalmouth scares Real held on to end Sevilla’s 34 game unbeaten home record.

The day kicked off with Leo Messi scoring his 39th and 40th goal of the season as Barcelona put Cordoba to the sword as Luis Suarez scored his first hat-trick for the club in an emphatic 8-0 win which also confirmed Cordoba’s relegation to the second division.

Barca had struggled to break down a stubborn Cordoba until Ivan Rakitic’s volley three minutes from halftime and Luis Suarez’s volley with the last kick of the first half to open th floodgates.

Messi made it 3-0 in the 46th minute and Suarez added a fourth seven minutes later after which Barca played at will with Pique, Neymar, Messi against and Suarez ending the rout.

Atletico Madrid and Athletic club Bilbao played out a 0-0 draw in a game which saw Atletico have two goals wrongly ruled out for tight offside decisions. (IANS)