La Liga wrap: Birthday brace for Ronaldo

Real Madrid found themselves back among the goals and closed the gap on Barcelona in a 4-1 win over Real Sociedad on Sunday.

Jose Mourinho’s Real beat Sevilla 2-0 in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday but had failed to score more than one goal in each of their five preceding matches.

Star man Cristiano Ronaldo was also suffering his own drought, without a goal in his last four appearances.

But he struck a brace on his 26th birthday in the win over Sociedad, while Kaka and Emmanuel Adebayor also scored as Real kept pace with La Liga leaders Barca.

Brazil international Kaka seized upon a poor clearance from midfielder Gorka Elustondo to open the scoring in the eighth minute at the Santiago Bernabeu.

It was just Kaka’s second goal of the season after recovering from the knee injury that sidelined him since the 2010 World Cup.

Real goalkeeper Iker Casillas denied Raul Tamudo at the other end, before Ronaldo found the net with a low drive from outside the area in the 21st minute.

Ronaldo and Germany’s Mesut Oezil both went close, before the two combined for Real’s third.

Oezil swung in a corner and Ronaldo rose to head home and put the hosts firmly in command three minutes before the break.

Sociedad pulled one back through an Alvaro Arbeloa own-goal in the 72nd minute, but on-loan striker Adebayor struck to restore the three-goal cushion with a minute remaining.

Barca went 10 points clear with their win over Atletico Madrid on Saturday, but the lead is now back to seven points with Real in second.

Sevilla missed a chance to close the gap on Espanyol in the last European qualification places.

Sixth-placed Espanyol lost 3-2 away to Almeria on Saturday, but Sevilla were held goalless at home to bottom club Malaga.

Julio Baptista and Weligton could have put Malaga ahead in the first half at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan while Luis Fabiano wasted a good chance for the hosts.

Substitute Sandro Silva could have won it for Malaga in the closing stages, but his header was well saved by Sevilla goalkeeper Andres Palop.

Valencia stayed fourth after they beat Hercules 2-0 at home.

Aritz Aduriz made the breakthrough in the 42nd minute at Estadio Mestalla, before Alberto Costa doubled the advantage eight minutes into the second half.