A jovial Real Madrid side continued their march towards a second consecutive La Liga title with another easy win over rock-bottom Elche at their home.
Coming into the contest on the back of an impressive win over arch-rivals Barcelona and basking in the glory of their Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema, Madrid romped past Elche 3-0 thanks to goals from Federico Valverde, Benzema and Marco Asensio.
The visitors dominated from the start and had their first of three efforts ruled out by VAR in the sixth minute when Benzema’s goal was chalked off for offside against Vinicius Jr.
Valverde broke the deadlock in the 11th minute with another clinical strike from outside the box, an effort reminiscent of his goal against Barcelona. He now has six goals in 15 appearances for Real this season, as many as in his first 148 appearances for the club.
VAR ruled out a second goal in the 25th minute when Alaba found the net after a linkup with Benzema with the French forward denied again by the technology in the 60th minute.
Andriy Lunin had to deny Carlos Clerc in the 70th minute to keep Real in front before his side finally got the coveted goal in the 75th when Benzema finally got his goal after having his previous two ruled out.
Asensio then completed the scoreline in the latter stages of the game with Rodrygo providing another assist.
The win means Real now has a six-point lead over Barcelona in the league standings while the Catalans have a game in hand.
