Real Madrid brushed aside Espanyol 5-0 Sunday to march on toward its first Spanish league title in four seasons with its 10th consecutive win. Madrid dominated throughout, barely breaking a sweat in a commanding victory that restored its 10-point lead over defending champion Barcelona. Cristiano Ronaldo took advantage of a defensive error by Espanyol to open the scoring with his league-leading 30th goal. Germany midfielder Sami Khedira added a goal before halftime. Gonzalo Higuain then scored twice and Kaka also found the net in the second half to seal Madrid's 12th win in 13 league games at Santiago Bernabeu stadium this season. “We knew we needed to maintain our lead in the table,” said Higuain. “We are happy not only with the victory but with the way we went about earning it.” Earlier, Athletic Bilbao prepared for its Europa League clash with Manchester United by beating Real Sociedad 2-0 thanks to a double from Markel Susaeta. Marcelo provided Madrid's first glimpses of danger with his incursions down the left flank in an otherwise lackluster start for his team that had more offside decisions go against it than scoring chances. Mesut Oezil latched on to Espanyol defender Raul Rodriguez's poor pass and linked with Higuain, who slipped the ball for Ronaldo alone in the area to rifle home the 23rd-minute opener for his 38th goal in all competitions. Sami Khedira made it 2-0 in the 38th when he started and finished off a beautiful series of one-touch passes with Ronaldo and Oezil to split open the center of the defense before firing into the lower left corner of the net. The host only had to wait two minutes into the second half for Kaka to gallop free into the area and lay off for Higuain to beat Casilla from close range and celebrate his 150th appearance for Madrid. Kaka, a former Ballon D'Or winner, extended Madrid's lead in the 66th by rolling a shot off the far post and into the net. With Espanyol demoralized, Higuain volleyed Kaka's pass into the top left corner of the net in the 78th for his 16th goal of the season. Elsewhere, Sofiane Feghouli's first-half goal gave Valencia a hard-fought 1-0 win at Granada as it reinforced its hold on third place, while last-place Zaragoza scored two late goals to beat Villarreal 2-1. United thrashes Spurs In London, two Ashley Young goals helped Manchester United to a clinical 3-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur and sliced Manchester City's lead at the top of the Premier League back to two points Sunday. With 11 games remaining champion United has 64 points to the 66 of City with Tottenham on 53, four ahead of Arsenal in the race for an automatic Champions League spot. Newcastle United's hopes of challenging for a top-four spot suffered a blow with a 1-1 draw against 10-man Sunderland. Wolverhampton Wanderers slipped into the relegation zone after a 5-0 drubbing at Fulham, for whom Russian Pavel Pogrebnyak scored a hat trick and Clint Dempsey two. Catania holds Inter Inter Milan came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at home to Catania in Serie A Sunday and end its five-game losing run. Inter is a point behind sixth-place Roma, which lost 2-1 in a heated derby match against Lazio with both sides reduced to 10 men. Elsewhere it was: Lazio 2, AS Roma 1; Bologna 1 Novara 0; Fiorentina 2 Cesena 0; Lecce 2 Genoa 2; Napoli 2 Parma 1; Siena 3 Cagliari 0; Udinese 0 Atalanta Bergamo 0.
