Ronaldo equals La Liga's record of 22 hat-tricks as Real routs Athletic Bilbao 5-0

Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo fired away another hattrick to equal the La Liga record of 22 hat-tricks as he helped Real Madrid romp Athletic Bilbao 5-0 on Sunday.

This was Ronaldo's third hat-trick of the Spanish League campaign as he took his tally for campaign to 13 goals in six appearances. He equalled the record of 22 hat-tricks jointly held by Alfredo Di Stefano and Telmo Zarra.

A rampant Ronaldo headed Real in front from Gareth Bale's lofted centre in the third minute at the Bernabeu. Karim Benzema doubled Real's lead four minutes before half-time when he headed home at a corner and Bale sped clear to set up Ronaldo for his second 10 minutes into the second half, The Guardian reported.

The Portuguese world player of the year unselfishly squared for Benzema to make it 4-0 in the 69th minute and Ronaldo completed his treble two minutes from time when the ball bounced off his body into the net.

Only a series of superb stops by Gorka Iraizoz in the Bilbao goal prevented further punishment for the struggling Basque side as Real provided more evidence that they have put an early-season stumble firmly behind them.

Ronaldo said that they still have room for improvement, adding that the team played a good match and scored five goals without conceding. He said that they are very pleased/

The victory lifted Real above Atletico Madrid into fourth place on 15 points following the champions' 3-1 defeat at Valencia on Saturday.

Barcelona lead on 19 points and became the first team to avoid conceding in their opening seven La Liga games thanks to Saturday's 2-0 success at Rayo Vallecano.

Valencia are second on 17 points and Sevilla a point further back in third after they thrashed promoted Deportivo La Coruna 4-1 earlier on Sunday, helped by a brace from the Cameroon midfielder Stephane Mbia, the report added.