When Barcelona were 2-0 up through Lionel Messi and Neymar with just 30 minutes played at Sevilla on Saturday night, they seemed set to take a giant step towards sealing this season’s La Liga title.
Then mistakes from Claudio Bravo and Gerard Pique allowed Sevilla to draw 2-2 and allowed second-placed Real Madrid to move within just two points of the top.
Ronaldo’s opener in Madrid’s 3-0 stroll past Eibar on Saturday afternoon at the Bernabeu was the tenth time the Portuguese has opened the scoring in La Liga this season.It was also the first time he had scored from a direct free-kick since he rolled the ball under the Bayern Munich wall during last season’s Champions League semifinal second leg. Since then he had taken 56 attempts for club and country — 23 of those had hit the wall, 18 were saved, 14 had missed the target and one hit the post.