French captain Karim Benzema top-scored for Royals with 31, Brazilian striker Rodrigo scored 89 and Raul de Thomas scored 84 for Rayo.

Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti’s side returned to second place with 74 points, one point ahead of arch-rivals Atletico Madrid, who lost a three-goal lead at Espanyol and fell to third with a 3-3 draw.

As for Rayo, his score stood at eleventh place with 46 points.

Real asserted its dominance at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, where it has won its last 11 matches against Rayo Vallecano, having last won at home to its rivals in 1996.

Rayo Vallecano, who were fighting for a European place a month ago, suffered their third straight defeat after going down 1-3 to Real Betis and 1-2 to Espanyol.

Benzema took his tally to 18 goals, five goals behind Barcelona’s Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, the leader of the points table (23).

Senegalese Nicolas Jackson (20 and 45 + 2) scored Villarreal’s 2-0 win over their hosts Cádiz for their third straight win.

The “Yellow Submarines” team raised their score to 63 points, 5 points behind Real Sociedad, keeping their hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League alive. Cádiz’s balance is frozen in sixteenth place with 38 points, which is still stifling.

A lackluster Sevilla bounced back for a valuable draw against hosts Else, who were relegated to the second division after a 1-1 draw.

Sevilla scored in the tenth minute through Argentinian Erik Lamela after a pass from Moroccan international Youssef Al-Nusairi before ending the match after 8 minutes with ten men. over Argentina’s Lucas Pouille.

Elche took advantage of the numerical deficit in their visiting line-up to equalize thanks to Titi Morente (25).