BARCELONA, Spain — Cristiano Ronaldo overtook Lionel Messi as the season’s leading scorer after his brace led Real Madrid to a 2-1 win at Eibar in the Spanish league on Saturday.
Ronaldo scored his 32nd and 33rd goals in all competitions this campaign to move one ahead of his Barcelona rival.
And Ronaldo knows he’ll stay top for now. Messi will miss Barcelona’s match at Malaga later Saturday after earlier announcing the birth of Ciro, his third son.
After struggling early in the season to find the net in La Liga, Ronaldo has scored 14 goals in his last nine games in the competition.
That leaves him with 18 goals in the league, third behind Luis Suarez with 20 and Messi with 24.
"(Ronaldo) is from another galaxy," Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said. "He knows he is going to score. The numbers speak for themselves."
Barcelona leads the league by eight points over Atletico Madrid, which hosts Celta Vigo on Sunday. Real Madrid is another four points back in third.
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RONALDO TO THE RESCUE
Madrid was six minutes away from dropping points when Ronaldo came through with a powerful header to send in Dani Carvajal’s cross and grab victory at Eibar.
Ronaldo opened the scoring against the flow of play in the 34th minute when Luka Modric intercepted a pass and set him up. Ronaldo used his chest to control Modric’s pass before scoring.
Eibar defender Ivan Ramis equalized in the 50th before being substituted for injury.
Madrid defender Raphael Varane was substituted early in the match after a blow to the head. He walked off the pitch and was replaced by Nacho Fernandez.
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VALENCIA ON COURSE
Valencia is on course to lock up a top-four finish and Champions League berth after winning 2-0 at Sevilla, its nearest rival for fourth place.
Rodrigo Moreno scored twice to give Valencia an important away victory that opened up an 11-point advantage over fifth-place Sevilla.
Rodrigo Moreno netted his 11th and 12th league goals of the season.
The forward first capitalized on a mistake by Sergio Escudero, whose flubbed attempt to intercept a long pass left Moreno all alone to beat goalkeeper Sergio Rico.
Luis Muriel hit the crossbar for Sevilla and Valencia goalkeeper Neto made a reflex save to parry Pablo Sarabia’s shot before halftime.
Moreno beat Rico again in the 68th after Geoffrey Kondogbia dribbled past three Sevilla players before playing him clear.
"These are more than just three points," Moreno said. "It isn’t decided yet, but we have made an important step toward achieving our goal."
Sevilla visits Manchester United on Tuesday in the second leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie. The first leg finished 0-0.
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