Alvaro Morata and James Rodriguez scored twice as a much-changed Real Madrid moved to within three victories of winning La Liga with a 4-0 demolition of Tony Adams’s already-relegated Granada.
Earlier, Neymar, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez were all on target to take their combined tally for the season to 102 as Barcelona kept pace at the top with a 4-1 win over Villarreal.
Barca remain top thanks to their superior head-to-head record with the two locked on 84 points, but Real have three games remaining to the Catalans’ two.
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Real coach Zinedine Zidane continued his rotation policy of recent weeks with nine changes from the side that beat Atletico Madrid 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday as hat-trick hero Cristiano Ronaldo was left out of the squad entirely.
However, it mattered little as Real maintained their perfect La Liga record in nine games without Ronaldo this season.
Barely two minutes had gone when Lucas Vazquez got in behind the Granada defence and squared for Rodriguez to tap home the opener.
The Colombian then powered home a header from Fabio Coentrao’s cross just nine minutes later.
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Adams made a substitution after just 16 minutes as Uche Agbo replaced Aly Malle, but it couldn’t prevent the one-way traffic.
Morata blasted home Danilo’s low cross then bullied Martin Hongla out of the way to fire home his 20th goal of the season.
Vazquez then hit the bar and Casemiro somehow shot over with the goal at his mercy as Madrid’s dominance of the first 45 minutes left some Granada fans in tears.
Real had mercy on the hosts after the break, but now just need seven points from their last three games against Sevilla, Celta Vigo and Malaga to seal a first La Liga title in five years.
Source: HindustanTimes