Cristiano Ronaldo netted his 18th and 19th La Liga goals of the season as Real Madrid survived some late pressure to win 3-2 at city rivals Getafe on Monday and trim the gap to leaders Barcelona back to two points.
Portugal forward Ronaldo struck in each half either side of a Mesut Ozil effort to keep Real hard on the heels of champions Barca, who had stretched their lead to five with Sunday's 2-1 home win over promoted Levante.
Real coach Jose Mourinho gave midfielder Kaka a run-out in the final 15 minutes for the Brazil playmaker's first appearance this season following post-World Cup knee surgery.
They had taken an 11th-minute lead at the Coliseum when Angel Di Maria went to ground in the penalty area and Ronaldo blasted the spot kick past Getafe keeper Jordi Codina.
Di Maria played Ozil through for Real's second in the 19th before Dani Parejo dribbled past Alvaro Arbeloa and Lassana Diarra and lashed a shot past Real's Iker Casillas 10 minutes later.
Ronaldo looked to have made the game safe 12 minutes into the second half with a smart finish from Karim Benzema's pass, which put him two goals clear of Barca forward Lionel Messi on the La Liga scoring charts. However, the dismissal of Real defender Arbeloa in the 82nd minute for a second yellow card lifted the home side.
{{/usCountry}}Ronaldo looked to have made the game safe 12 minutes into the second half with a smart finish from Karim Benzema's pass, which put him two goals clear of Barca forward Lionel Messi on the La Liga scoring charts. However, the dismissal of Real defender Arbeloa in the 82nd minute for a second yellow card lifted the home side.
{{/usCountry}}Real have 44 points from 17 matches, behind Barca on 46, while Villarreal stay third on 36 after they beat Almeria 2-0 in the earlier kickoff.
Mourinho critical
Mourinho was unusually critical of his players at his post-match conference, saying they had lacked their usual focus in defence. "Usually we are much more concentrated, much more compact and we gave our opponent a lot of space," the Portuguese said. "My team needs to defend better and I didn't like them much today."