French forward Karim Benzema was the only goal scorer on the ninth at the Santiago Bernabeu as Real Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao in a rescheduled La Liga fixture.

Benzema’s 40th minute strike was enough to see Real Madrid extend their unbeaten run against the Basque county club to 13 matches gave Real Madrid the opportunity to extend the gap between themselves and the second-placed Atletico Madrid on the La Liga table.

Real Madrid now has 36 points from 15 games and they are now 7 points away from Atletico Madrid albeit Diego Simeone’s side have a game in hand with 20 points from 15 games.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side are now on a seven-match winning streak and they hope to continue that streak with a victory against Real Sociedad who they face next in the La Liga at the weekend before their last UEFA Champions League group stage game of the season next week.

Meanwhile, Carlo Ancelotti has revealed that Real Madrid has enough squad death to continue to compete for the La Liga title and UEFA Champions League even without signing players in the January transfer window. The Italian manager also stated that he isn’t a fan of the January transfer window.

“I don’t like January signings much. If we have players who aren’t happy, it’s something we can think about but we are not going to sign anyone. We have enough to compete until the end of the season.” Ancelotti said.

Meanwhile, Real Sociedad won 4-0 in their Copa Del Rey clash on Wednesday evening against Panaderia. Real Betis also won by the same scoreline against Alicante.

However, Sevilla needed an extra time goal from Lucas Ocampos before they could defeat Cordoba and move to the next round of the competition

Written by: Daniel Ademiju Idowu