Triple century – Ronaldo notches goal No. 300 for Real Madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo scoerd his 300th goal for Real Madrid in a laboured 2-0 La Liga victory at neighbours Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday that kept the gap on leaders Barcelona down to four points.

Fresh from thrashing Granada 9-1, when Ronaldo hit five, the European champions needed a win at Rayo after Barca strolled to a 4-0 home victory over Almeria to open a seven-point advantage over their arch-rivals.

In-form Luis Suarez scored twice and Lionel Messi ended a three-game goal drought, with Marc Bartra also getting on the scoresheet at the Nou Camp.

Real struggled to exert any control over lowly Rayo and missed a host of chances before Ronaldo netted his 37th La Liga goal of the campaign with a header from Dani Carvajal’s cross.

The prolific Portugal forward, five clear of Messi at the top of the scoring chart, is the third player after Raul (323) and Alfredo Di Stefano (307) to reach 300 goals for Real, but has needed only 288 matches, compared with Raul’s 741 and Di Stefano’s 396.