Real Madrid 10 points clear thanks to Ronaldo hat-trick

By Duncan Shaw Feb 12, 2012, 22:49 GMT

Madrid - Real Madrid opened up a massive 10-point lead atop the Spanish Liga on Sunday, with a 4-2 hammering of fourth-placed Levante.

Once again, Real's hero was Cristiano Ronaldo, who banged in his fourth hat-trick of the season. The Portuguese hitman now has 27 league goals to his name.

Real have 58 points from 22 games, a new record at this stage of the season. They are 10 points ahead of defending champions Barcelona, who on Saturday crashed to a shock 3-2 defeat at Osasuna.

Defender Gustavo Cabral headed Levante into the lead after just five minutes, but Real dominated from then on.

The game turned on an incident just before half-time, when Levante midfielder Iborra was sent off for handball and Ronaldo made it 1-1 from the resultant penalty.

Real have been awarded 10 penalties this season, another new record, and all of them have been converted by Ronaldo.

The world's most expensive player scored two quickfire goals at the start of the second half. Karim Benzema put away Real's fourth goal.

Earlier on Sunday, Villarreal moved above the danger zone with a 3-1 defeat of lowly Granada.

Villarreal coach Jose Molina said: 'It was not a brilliant win but it was an important one. Granada made things difficult for us, they are quite a good team.'

Villarreal's goals were scored by Marco Ruben and Borja Valero, plus an own goal from over-worked Granada keeper Julio Cesar.

The win takes the yellows up to seventh from bottom. Granada, who had defender Pape Diakhate sent off, are now fifth from bottom.

Earlier on Sunday, Valencia recovered from Wednesday's cup defeat at Barcelona by slaughtering lowly Sporting Gijon 4-0 at home.

'We needed to play well and score goals,' said Valencia's left-back Jordi Alba, 'because our recent results and performances have been poor.'

Sofiane Feghouli gave the hosts the lead in the 33rd minute, Gijon defender Alberto Botia made it 2-0 with a clumsy own goal. Brazilian striker Jonas completed the rout with two handsome late goals.

The comfortable win leaves Valencia in third place with 40 points, eight fewer than second-placed Barcelona.

Also on Sunday, Malaga moved up to seventh by beating Mallorca 3-1, on goals from Seba Fernandez, Jeremy Toulalan and Jose Rondon.

Rayo Vallecano beat Getafe 2-0 in a lively southern Madrid derby, thanks to goals from Michu and Diego Costa. Getafe were crippled by the sending-off of midfielder Michel.

Sunday's lunchtime game saw bottom team Zaragoza score their first win in almost four months, 2-0 at fifth-placed Espanyol, with goals from Paulo da Silva and Juan Carlos.

Zaragoza are still practically doomed because they are four points behind Gijon and nine behind Racing Santander, the third-from-bottom team.