Barca and Madrid maintain title duel in Spain's matchday 35

Cristiano Ronaldo scored the 25th La Liga hat-trick of his career as Real Madrid negotiated a potential banana skin to keep in touch with FC Barcelona at the top of the BBVA Primera Liga.

The Portuguese international scored his 40th, 41st and 42nd league goals of the season as Real Madrid emerged triumphant 3-2, with not a small amount of luck from Sevilla' s Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium, where the home side had been unbeaten in 34 matches.

Real Madrid were able to take advantage of a bad tactical error from Sevilla coach, Unai Emery who left his side with 10 men for over 10 minutes to allow Grzegorz Krtchowiak to receive treatment, which time Ronaldo scored twice.

Carlos Bacca pulled one back from the penalty spot, Ronaldo completed his hat-trick and scored his 42nd league goal of the campaign with a hanging header.

Vicente Iborra again got Sevilla back into the game with 12 minutes remaining, but despite several goalmouth scares Real held on for three vital points, which keep them two behind Barca, who defeated Cordoba 8-0 away from home.

Leo Messi scoring his 39th and 40th goals of the season and provided a pair of assists as Barcelona put Cordoba to the sword in a game which saw Luis Suarez score his first hat-trick for the club.

Barca struggled to break down a stubborn Cordoba defense for 42 minutes before Ivan Rakitic' s volley opened the floodgates after which the goals rained down on the hapless home side, whose relegation to the second division was also confirmed by the defeat.

Atletico Madrid and Athletic club Bilbao played out a 0-0 draw in a game which saw Atletico have two goals wrongly ruled out for tight offside decisions.

Nevertheless it is not a bad result for either side in their aims to qualify for third and seventh place respectively.

Sunday saw Valencia close the gap on Atletico Madrid in the battle for third place as they inflicted a 3-1 defeat on relegation threatened Eibar.

Perhaps boosted by Atletico' s slip up on Saturday, Valencia controlled the first half and opened the scoring through a powerful Nicolas Otamendi header. Dani Perejo doubled the lead 10 minutes after the break and Paco Alcacer made it 3-0 with 20 minutes remaining before Mikel Arruabarrena scored a late consolation goal for the visitors, who have now lost five consecutive matches.

Espanyol and Rayo Vallecano drew 1-1 in a game which has little relevance either at the top or the bottom of the table, while two goals from el Arabi gave new Granada coach Jose Ramon Sandoval a winning start at the club, who remain second from bottom of the table despite the win.

Sunday ended with Elche assuring their place in the top flight next season with a surprise 2-1 win over Malaga for whom Javi Guerra scored a late consolation goal. Malaga's defeat sees them slip behind Athletic Club in the race for Europe, while Jonathas and Pasalic scored the goals which gave Elche their vital win. Endi