Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo scored four times in Saturday's 7-1 win over Celta Vigo as the Portuguese superstar moved into second place all-time in La Liga's goal charts.
Ronaldo, 31, had been whistled by a restless Bernabeu earlier in the game but responded with four goals in the span of 26 second-half minutes, giving him 252 strikes in just 228 La Liga games.
Lionel Messi remains the all-time La Liga record goal scorer, with the Argentine having managed 304 so far for Barcelona in 12 seasons to Ronaldo's seven.
Ronaldo answered his critics by swerving a 30-yard strike into the net with Real already 1-0 up in the 50th minute.
He soon followed that with a superb 25-yard free kick right to the top corner of the Celta goal, then completed his hat trick from close range from Isco's cross, before heading his fourth of the game to the net from Jese's corner.
Ronaldo also now heads this season's La Liga Pichichi top scorer race with 27 goals, two ahead of Barcelona's Luis Suarez, with Messi back on 19 in joint-third. He has also moved one ahead of Benfica's Jonas to top the current European Golden Boot standings.
Gareth Bale marked his return from a hamstring injury by scoring in his first appearance in 50 days, while Pepe and Jese also got on the scoresheet for Madrid. Iago Aspas got Celta's only goal in what was their worst defeat of the season.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Las Palmas took another step towards survival when an unexpected 1-0 win over Champions League hopefuls Villarreal brought them a third consecutive victory.
Captain David Garcia gave the visitors a deserved lead on the half-hour mark, becoming the first player to score against Villarreal goalkeeper Alphonse Areola in the league for 620 minutes.
Villarreal, meanwhile, slipped seven points behind third-placed Real Madrid but are still in pole position to claim fourth spot.
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