Cristiano Ronaldo breaks La Liga penalty record

The Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo (57) is now the player with most penalties scored in La Liga history, surpassing Hugo Sanchez’s 56, having converted from the spot against Villarreal on Sunday.

Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi lags some way behind Ronaldo in fifth with 43, also trailing Luboslav Penev (44) and Ronald Koeman (45).
Ronaldo’s 57th spot-kick is his fifth penalty goal in LaLiga this season and takes his overall league tally for the campaign to 16.

Real found themselves 2-0 behind at Estadio de la Ceramica before referee Jesus Gil awarded the La Liga leaders a controversial penalty for handball.

The Portuguese scored the resulting penalty, moving him one above the former Los Blancos forward.

Gareth Bale returned to the Real starting XI and scored their first of the evening, also equalling the Liga record for successive matches scored in, with Barca on 44.

Real went on to win the tie thanks to a Alvaro Morata strike and reclaimed top spot from Barcelona, who had beaten Atletico Madrid 2-1 earlier in the day.

Zinedine Zidane’s men now sit a point above the Catalan side with a game in hand still to play.