Real Madrid with 'half dozen' of goals

Kaka scored his goal for the 'Merengues'

Real Madrid began their Spanish Primera Liga campaign in style on Sunday, as Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick in a 6-0 demolition of Real Zaragoza.

Ronaldo opened the scoring early on after converting Mesut Ozil's pass and defender Marcelo added a second to give the visitors a comfortable advantage at the break.

The second half was all one-way traffic as Ronaldo helped himself to two more from close range, while Xabi Alonso and Kaka chipped in with superb long- range strikes, as Jose Mourinho's men sounded an early warning to champions Barcelona, who begin the defense of their title at Villarreal on Monday evening.

"At 2-0 the game was already over and so it depended on whether we played together or individually and the players chose the first option so we won by a big margin," Mourinho told reporters.

Lineups
Zaragoza (0): Roberto Gago, Paulo da Silva, Fernando Meira, Paredes, Efraín Juárez, Zuculini (53' Ádam Pintér), Ponzio, Uche, Lafita, Abraham Minero (53' Edu Oriol), Pablo Barrera (82' Joel Valencia)

Real Madrid (6): Casillas, Carvalho, Pepe, Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Coentrão, Xabi Alonso, Benzema (76' Higuain), Özil (78' Kaka), Ronaldo, Di María (72' Callejón)

Goal Scorers: Ronaldo (24' 0-1), Marcelo (28' 0-2), Xabi Alonso (64' 0-3), Ronaldo (71' 0-4), Kaka (82' 0-5), Ronaldo (87' 0-6) 

Real Madrid falls at the Santiago Bernabeu and leads Barcelona closer to La Liga

Real Madrid lost their hope to reach La Liga title

Lafita scored twice as Real Zaragoza stunned Real Madrid, 3-2, at the Bernabeu on Saturday, sending Jose Mourinho's side to its third home loss in its last five matches at the Bernabeu.
Sporting Gijon snapped Mourinho's nine-year home unbeaten run on April 2, then Barcelona defeated Real Madrid, 2-0, on Wednesday in the first match of their Champions League semifinal series.
With the second leg at Barca looming Tuesday, Real was stunned at home again - only this time it failed to lose ground in the La Liga race, as Barca lost 2-1 at Real Sociedad to leave the gap at eight points.
Lafita took advantage of a mistake by Real and Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who missed an attempted clearance, to score the opener four minutes before the half.
Gabi added Zaragoza's second goal from the spot in the 55th and, after Sergio Ramos pulled a goal back for Real in the 62nd, Lafita added his second goal to restore the two-goal lead.
Karim Benzema added a goal in the 85th for Real, but Ricardo Carvalho was sent off two minutes later and Zaragoza held on for a needed win. Zaragoza moved four points clear of the relegation zone.

Zaragoza crushes Valencia with a 4-0 win

Jonas trying to win the ball against Leonardo Ponzio

Real Zaragoza turned up the heat on Valencia coach Unai Emery with a thumping 4-0 win. Valencia president Manuel Llorente backed the coach after the club tumbled out of the UEFA Champions League at the hands of Schalke in midweek, but got far from the perfect response at La Romareda.

Goals from Jiri Jarosik and Ander Herrera in the first half and a brace of penalties after the break from Gabi completed a miserable night for Valencia. They finished the game with ten men as Marius Stankevicius was sent off in the 65th minute for a second yellow card he received in conceding the first penalty.

Valencia got off to a poor start as they conceded after just four minutes with Jarosik heading a Javier Paredes free-kick from the right into the roof of the net. At the other end Zaragoza goalkeeper Toni Doblas fumbled a cross from Jeremy Mathieu but got away with it.

Ikechukwu Uche had a chance to double the hosts lead in the 39th minute but his shot from six yards was weak and went wide. However, the Nigerian made up for that miss just a minute later by crossing for Herrera to knock home the second.

Things went from bad to worse for the visitors in the 65th minute as Stankevicius brought down Nicolas Bertolo in the area. The Lithuanian collected his second booking and Gabi stroked home the penalty.

Zaragoza were rampant now and Braulio's shot was tipped round the post by goalkeeper Vicente Guaita. The keeper, although, was picking the ball out of his net for a fourth time in the 74th minute after Gabi coolly sent another penalty into the bottom corner after David Albelda had fouled Braulio to put the seal on a comprehensive win.