Real thrash Granada to equal record

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Granada’s Ruben Vezo in action. REUTERS

Reuters: Real Madrid equalled a Spanish record of 39 games unbeaten in all competitions by crushing struggling Granada 5-0 on Saturday to go four points clear at the top of La Liga.

Antoine Griezmann scored his first league goal in more than three months as Atletico Madrid won 2-0 at Eibar, while Sevilla beat Real Sociedad 4-0 away thanks to a hat-trick from Wissam Ben Yedder.

Real lead with 40 points and Sevilla are second with 36, two more than Barcelona who visit Villarreal on Sunday. Atletico’s win took them fourth with 31.

“It’s much easier when you start a game by scoring goals early on like we did today. Granada like to sit back so it was important to score when we did,” Real coach Zinedine Zidane said.

“The fact they barely had a shot shows how seriously we took the game. You normally play worse in the second half after scoring three or four goals in the first but that didn’t happen today, we respected our opponents.”