Real Madrid maul Elche to reduce Barcelona’s La Liga lead

Real Madrid has reduced Barcelona’s lead at the top of the La Liga table  to eight points with a comfortable victory over Elche at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The win came on the back of Club World Cup glory on Saturday. Thus, Real Madrid returned to winning ways in La Liga on Wednesday evening after a victory over bottom side Elche.

They had gone into the game because of a defeat to Mallorca 10 days ago.

So,  subsequent victories for Barcelona against Sevilla and Villarreal have made Real Madrid find themselves 11 points adrift of Xavi Hernandez’s side ahead of the match against Elche. 

But with this win, the deficit has been reduced to eight comfortably.

Marco Asensio opened the goal chart for the La Liga champions; he needed just 9 minutes to score the opener when he collected a pass from Dani Carvajal midway inside the Elche half, evading several challenges before driving into the box and firing beyond Elche keeper Edgar Badia.

Real Madrid made it two from the penalty spot on the half-hour mark through skipper Karim Benzema. Enzo Roco handled the ball into his box. This allowed Benzema to score his 10th of the season from 12 yards, which he did with an emphatic effort.

The striker later grabbed his 11th just before halftime to make it three for Los Blancos. Diego Gonzalez fouled Rodrygo inside the penalty area, and the referee had no choice but to point to the penalty spot.  He tucked the ball home for his second of the match.

Luka Modric came off the bench to put the gloss on the victory in the second half. In celebrating his goal, the veteran midfielder climbed off the bench to score a fantastic rifled effort from the edge of the box to make it 4-0.

 Next on the schedule of Real Madrid is the La Liga issue with 

Real Madrid travels to face Mallorca in their next La Liga fixture on Saturday evening.

They will travel to England to face Liverpool in the first round of their Champions League last-16 tie next Tuesday. 

Elche are currently rooted to the 12th  foot of the table, 12 points adrift of Espanyol in 17th place.

Written by Oladipupo Mojeed