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Final scoreline: Real Madrid 6-0 Celta Vigo
Trailing second-placed arch-rivals Atletico Madrid by 6 points, Real Madrid opened up the gates of the Santiago Bernabeu to welcome Juan Carlos Unzue and his Celta Vigo side for the penultimate league game, and Madrid's last home game of the season.
Despite an awful start to the season, Real Madrid seem to have found their feet and have been in decent touch recently (barring the midweek La Liga loss to Sevilla), continuing their run against Celta Vigo as well.
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In Cristiano Ronaldo's absence, Gareth Bale's sensational first-half brace was accompanied by Isco's blinder to give Los Blancos an infallible 3-0 lead by the 32nd minute. The second half offered no relief as Achraf Hakimi gave the hosts their 4th of the night before Celta Vigo centre-back Sergi Gomez put the ball into his own net to make it 5.
Toni Kroos then joined the party as he netted Madrid's 6th after the hosts capitalised on a ridiculous giveaway. As Madrid reduced the gap between themselves and second place to just 3 points, here is a look at 3 things that went right for Real Madrid:
#3 Achraf Hakimi's stand-out performance
19-year-old Achraf Hakimi was handed just his 8th La Liga appearance of the season and the Moroccan right-back grasped at the opportunity with both hands with a rather noteworthy performance that included a goal - his second for Real Madrid.
Zinedine Zidane decided to give captain Sergio Ramos a breather and left him out of the side, thereby starting Nacho at centre-back instead of in his usual right-back slot.
Subsequently, this left the right-back spot open for Hakimi, who was, by far, Real Madrid's second best player on the night after Gareth Bale as he put in quite the performance to stake a claim for a more regular spot in the starting 11. He also made his case for a spot in the starting 11 against Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League final in Kiev later this month.
Not only did Hakimi score Madrid's 4th goal with an excellent run to convert Karim Benzema's pass, he was also a constant nuisance for the Celta defence to handle as he repeatedly made promising runs down the flank, almost creating a couple of chances in the process.
With 4 successful dribbles and 64 passes at an accuracy of 83%, Hakimi was an incessant threat down the right flank and his goal in the second-half perfectly capped off a commendable performance by the young man.
Expect him to start a lot more next season for Los Blancos.
#2 Continued domination at home
Entering this game unbeaten in their last 8 La Liga home games, all eyes were on Real Madrid to see whether they could continue their sublime home form and win all three crucial points and put themselves within reach of local rivals Atletico Madrid.
Further, in those 8 unbeaten games, Madrid averaged 3.6 goals per game, winning 6 of them and drawing the other two. The game against Celta was no variant as Madrid dominated the visitors from the get-go to further improve their home record.
Los Blancos' immaculate pressing ultimately proved too hot for Celta Vigo to handle as they were subsequently outplayed in every department. With 56.8% possession of the ball and 645 passes to their name, Madrid dictated play for a majority of the game allowing the visitors little to work with.
More importanly, Madrid finished with a passing accuracy of 89.8% in Celta Vigo's half and that speaks volumes about how easily they were able to control the narrative. By extension, Madrid were also the side with the most chances, with 15 shots as compared to Celta Vigo's 5.
Which brings us to...
#1 Ronaldo-less blitzkrieg
Cristiano Ronaldo picked up a minor ankle injury during last week's El Clasico against Barcelona and with the Champions League final just a couple of weeks away, Zinedine Zidane decided to rest his talismanic forward and not take any chances.
Despite the Portuguese forward's absence, Real Madrid ran riot against Celta Vigo, racking up 6 goals to not just give themselves a chance to catch up with Atleti, but to also send Liverpool a rather strong message.
Starting the game positively, it didn't take long for Madrid to hit full throttle and then there was just no stopping the juggernaut that followed.
Gareth Bale continued from where he left off against Barcelona as he scored two exquisite goals from tight angles in the first half before Isco delivered a blinder of his own to end the first half 3-0.
Achraf Hakimi's goal in the 52nd minute made it 4 before Sergi Gomez's botched clearance saw the ball slide into the back of his own net to give Madrid their 5th. Toni Kroos joined the party as he too found the net via a deflection off Celta Vigo goalkeeper Sergio Alvarez in the 81st minute to top off an incredible performance.
With one game left and second place in La Liga not completely out of the equation and the UEFA Champions League final looming, Real Madrid still have plenty to play for. If they can try and match yesterday's quality and intensity, these next 2 games could drastically improve what is being viewed as a terrible season by Los Blancos' usual standards.
