Real Madrid fired five goals against Rayo Vallecano to return to the top of the Spanish League after briefly being overtaken by rivals Barcelona.
The score flattered Real, who scored a flurry of second half goals late on after a brave Rayo Vallecano effort had threatened an upset. Welsh winger Gareth Bale returned to the starting line up to score within the first ten minutes and when Sergio Ramos added a second a heavy defeat was on the cards.
But Rayo Vallecano's Alberto Bueno made the most of a horrific defensive mix up to pull a goal back before half time, CNN reported.
However, Real eventually imposed their superiority on the game, with Toni Kroos, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo completing the scoring. It was the tenth game in a row that Ronaldo has scored and also the fifth time in eight league games that Real have scored five goals.
Meanwhile Barcelona striker Luis Suarez came off the bench to set up two goals, save his side the blushes and see the Catalan side briefly go top of the league. Barca had traveled to Almeria with question marks hanging over Luis Enrique's team.
A two game losing streak was followed by an unconvincing 2-0 victory over Ajax for Barca in the Champions League. The returning Suarez, signed in the summer but banned until last month after biting a player at the World Cup finals, had been far from his best too.
Suarez started on the bench and Barcelona went into half time a goal down after Thievy Bifouma took advantage of a Lionel Messi mistake to fire Almeria into the lead
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But Suarez and Neymar were called into action in the second half, which changed the shape of the game.
The two combined midway through the second half to bring the sides level before Suarez's cross set up Jordi Alba in the 81st minute to score the winner.
But Barca coach Enrique was far from happy. He said that the second half was better for the ambition and attitude shown by the players rather than for good football, adding that to have a good season, though, one has to win even when they don't play well in games like this.