Cristiano Ronaldo reaches 300 goals for Real Madrid in victory over Rayo Vallecano.
The Portuguese striker, who is five goals ahead of Messi at the top of the goalscoring charts, is the third player, after Raúl (323) and Alfredo Di Stefano (307), to reach 300 goals for Real Madrid, but he only needed 288 games, compared to 741 for Raúl and 396 for Di Stefano.
MADRID (ReutersCristiano Ronaldo scored his 300th goal for Real Madrid with a header during Wednesday's 2-0 victory over Rayo Vallecano, maintaining the gap to league leaders Barcelona at four points with eight games remaining in La Liga.
After their 9-1 thrashing of Granada at the weekend, in which Ronaldo scored five times, Real needed a win at the Vallecas stadium, as Barça had defeated Almería 4-0 at home, with two goals from Luis Suárez, one from Lionel Messi and another from Marc Bartra.
Real Madrid struggled to control Rayo Vallecano and missed a series of chances before Ronaldo scored his 37th La Liga goal with a header after a cross from Dani Carvajal in the 23rd minute of the second half.
The Portuguese striker, who is five goals ahead of Messi at the top of the goalscoring charts, is the third player, after Raúl (323) and Alfredo Di Stefano (307), to reach 300 goals for Real, but he only needed 288 games, compared to 741 for Raúl and 396 for Di Stefano.
Colombian James Rodríguez made it 2-0 in the match, finishing off a move by Cristiano Ronaldo six minutes later, leaving Real Madrid with 70 points, five ahead of reigning champions Atlético Madrid, who beat Real Sociedad 2-0 on Tuesday.