MADRID: Cristiano Ronaldo suffered a nasty cut to the head as Real Madrid moved back into the top four of La Liga after thumping lowly Deportivo La Coruna 7-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday.
Ronaldo ended a miserable run of league form with a late double but in the process of heading in his side’s sixth goal, he suffered a kick to the head. Blood was streaming from the side of his head and he borrowed the phone of the club doctor to check the damage. He was substituted straight away and received stitches at the side of the pitch.
Ronaldo had only scored four league goals before Sunday’s clash with third-from-bottom Deportivo, but the Portuguese added Real’s fifth and sixth with a smart volley and a diving header as they moved back above Villarreal and into the Champions League places.
Villarreal had temporarily taken fourth place with a 2-1 win over Levante on Saturday after beating Real at the Bernabeu for the first time ever last week.
Gareth Bale and Nacho also bagged braces each side of half-time and Luka Modric curled home a 68th-minute beauty as Real came back from a shock early deficit, a 23rd-minute tap-in from Adrian, to romp home to an emphatic victory and ease the pressure on coach Zinedine Zidane.
"What changed today is the result, that we scored the chances we made, nothing else," said Zidane. “We all needed a game like this. To score seven goals is not done every day. In the end I am happy for that. We know we can play in many different shapes. Today was 4-3-3 with Gareth and Cristiano wide, and Borja. And it worked for us. We can change shape, but the most important was the attitude we showed."