Real Madrid have opened up an eight-point lead at the top of LaLiga Santander after beating Real Sociedad 4-1 at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday night.
Mikel Oyarzabal scored a penalty in the 10th minute to give the visitors hope of a surprise win, but from the 40th minute onwards it was all Real Madrid. Eduardo Camavinga and Luka Modric managed to score before the half-time break, and in the second period Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio made sure of the result.
Four days before Real Madrid's Champions League last-16 second leg against Paris Saint-Germain, Carlo Ancelotti opted for a strong team that included a large majority of the players that will start on Wednesday night, although he will be without the suspended Casemiro and Ferland Mendy.
The game got off to a slow start for the hosts and that allowed La Real to capitalise, as David Silva was able to jink away from Dani Carvajal in the Real Madrid box before being brought down by the right-back. Oyarzabal then stepped up and sent his penalty into the bottom corner of the goal, just beyond the reach of Thibaut Courtois.
Real Madrid began to push numbers forward but were struggling to create anything of note, until Camavinga tried his luck from range. The Frenchman opted to send a shot towards goal from 25 yards out that ended up deflecting off of Asier Illaramendi and going past Alex Remiro in the Real Sociedad goal.
That goal seemed to strike a sense of fear in the Real Sociedad defence, as from the resulting kick-off Real Madrid almost scored again. Los Blancos immediately pushed forward in search of the ball and were able to win back possession, but when the ball was passed to Benzema and he fired past Remiro, he was slightly offside.
Then, no more than three minutes after Camavinga's equaliser, Modric gave Real Madrid the lead. A short corner led to the ball finding its way to Modric, who shifted it onto his left foot before sending a shot towards goal that flew into the back of the net. Suddenly, Real Madrid were ahead.
Those two goals in quick succession sucked any hope that Real Sociedad had of achieving a positive result, and the second half saw Los Blancos add to their margin with a penalty by Karim Benzema and a goal by substitute Marco Asensio.
Given the nature of the performance and the fact they had to show a mental toughness to come from behind to win, this was the perfect warm-up for Real Madrid ahead of Wednesday night's match against PSG.