Cristiano Ronaldo rounded off a week where he was named world player of the year for the third time scoring a double as Real Madrid opened up a four-point lead at the top of La Liga with a 3-0 win away to Getafe on Sunday. The visitors had to wait 63 minutes to make the breakthrough before he fired home from Karim Benzema's wonderful assist to set them on the road to victory.
Gareth Bale then doubled the visitors' lead before Ronaldo rounded off the scoring with a trademark header from James Rodriguez's cross.
Barcelona can cut Madrid's lead back to a solitary point when they travel to Deportivo la Coruna later on Sunday.
"It is true at the start we didn't play with a lot of intensity, said Real boss Carlo Ancelotti.
"At the start we played a bit slow, but I liked the performance because the team played with intelligence and much better in the second-half than the first.
"I think the whole team played well, but the assist by Karim (Benzema) opened the game up for us. It was extraordinary."
Perhaps suffering from the after effects of their Copa del Rey elimination to Atletico Madrid in midweek Madrid started sluggishly, but were rarely threatened by a goal-shy Getafe.
The European champions finally started to get going after 20 minutes as Marcelo drove a fierce effort just over on his weaker right foot before Benzema was denied by Jordi Codina.
Isco then tested the Getafe 'keeper with a piledriver from the edge of the box which Codina did well to turn over and Toni Kroos came even closer a minute before the break when he rattled the crossbar from long range.
Codina continued to frustrate Madrid at the start of the second period with good saves from Benzema and James Rodriguez.
However, his resistance was finally broken just before the hour mark with a brilliant team goal as Isco and Rodriguez combined to free Benzema and the Frenchman produced an exquisite piece of skill on the by-line to cut the ball back for Ronaldo to slam home.