CRISTIANO RONALDO struck twice as Real Madrid was thankful to a late missed penalty from Duje Cop to open up a seven-point lead over Barcelona with a 2-1 win over Sporting Gijon on Saturday.

    Madrid looked set for an easy afternoon as Ronaldo opened the scoring from the penalty spot before he headed home a second inside 20 minutes.

    However, Carlos Carmona halved Sporting’s deficit 10 minutes before half-time and the struggling visitors were handed a huge chance for an unexpected point 12 minutes from time when Nacho brought down Victor Rodriguez.

    Yet, Cop sent his penalty high and wide as Real held on amidst a torrential downpour to extend its unbeaten run to 31 games in all competitions.

    Sevilla leapfrogged Barca into second with a 2-1 win over relegation-threatened Valencia.

    However, Barca can cut the gap back to four points on Madrid and retake second place with a first win at Real Sociedad in nine years in a later match.

    Barca will host Real Madrid in the first Clasico of the season between Spanish soccer’s two giants at the Camp Nou next weekend.

    “It is a game for us to forget because things didn’t go as we would have liked,” said Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane.

    Fresh from netting a hat trick against Atletico Madrid last weekend, Ronaldo continued his return to scoring form with a quickfire double to move ahead of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez as La Liga’s top scorer.

    The opener arrived on five minutes when Lucas Vazquez was naively chopped down by Sergio Alvarez and Ronaldo emphatically converted the resulting spot-kick.

    The Portuguese’s second finish was even more impressive as he buried Nacho’s cross from the left with a powerful header that left Diego Marino no chance in the Sporting goal.

    (SD-Agencies)