Gareth Bale hauled Real Madrid off the canvas with a stunning fightback from 2-0 down to Villarreal to regain top spot in La Liga in a five-goal thriller.
Following defeat at Valencia in midweek, Real looked set for another huge blow to their title hopes when Manu Trigueros and Cedric Bakambu struck in a six-minute spell early in the second-half.
However, on his first start for three months, Bale powered home Dani Carvajal’s cross to half Madrid’s deficit and set up a rousing comeback.
Cristiano Ronaldo smashed home a penalty 10 minutes later after Bruno had been harshly penalised for handball.
And Alvaro Morata completed the comeback as he came off the bench to head home Marcelo’s pinpoint cross with the help of some slack goalkeeping from Andres Fernandez.
What a difference a week makes. Last Sunday night Barcelona were seconds away from dropping two points at home to lowly Leganes in what Barca boss Luis Enrique admitted would have been a definitive body blow to his side’s title hopes.
Seven days on and Barca had gone top thanks to Madrid’s defeat at Valencia in midweek and Lionel Messi’s late winner at Atletico Madrid earlier in the day.
The European champions looked for long spells as if they were set to crumble under the pressure.
However, never rule out Real Madrid. In what could be the most significant moment of the La Liga season so far, they breached the best defence in La Liga three times in 19 minutes to regain top spot.
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