Cristiano Ronaldo’s late winner spares sluggish Real Madrid’s blushes

There were five minutes to go and the nerves were increasingly frayed, the prospect of slipping nine points behind Barcelona in the table growing more real by the minute, when the men on the Real Madrid bench leapt in relief and ran towards the corner. Isco clipped a clever pass into the penalty area, the ball sitting up in front of Cristiano Ronaldo, who hit it into the far corner. Down by the corner flag, team-mates piled on. Victory had looked like it was evading them for a fourth time in just eight league games when an own goal had drawn Getafe level, but now it was secured.

A few minutes before Ronaldo had put the ball wide from barely a yard and time ticked away on a largely sluggish Madrid performance as they prepare for the visit of Spurs in the Champions League, but now he had scored his first league goal of the season – and, although Getafe would seek another equaliser, Mehdi Lacen’s shot flying wide, it proved decisive. The combination that carried them to the title in the final months of last season, and led them to the European Cup as well, had done it again: Isco made it, Ronaldo finished it.

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