Saturday turned out to be a great day to be a Madridista, with Los Blancos winning 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu against Elche to move three points clear at the top of La Liga.
It was then up to Barcelona to respond in the evening, but they fell to a 3-1 defeat at Real Sociedad, meaning Real Madrid are on their own as leaders for the first time in 20 months. Unless Atletico de Madrid beat Osasuna by more than five goals, that will remain the case this evening.
The Madrid press reflects the jubilation of the last 24 hours and there is plenty of coverage of both matches – with Marca and As going to town on Tato Martino’s line-up, substitutions, attitude and manner in which Los Cules played.
In terms of Real Madrid’s match, there is plenty of focus on Gareth Bale, who scored a stunning second goal form 30 yards out. Marca says that in Bale, Los Blancos have a weapon to unleash that no other La Liga club has, someone who can rifle home from long distance whenever he gets the chance.
There’s also much praise for Asier Illarramendi’s performance. The Basque midfielder put in a superb display in the middle of the park filling in for the suspended Luka Modric. And he grabbed his first Real Madrid goal in La Liga by opening the scoring.
