MADRID • Thibaut Courtois overcame the toy rat insults and Gareth Bale delivered a timely reminder of his talents with his 100th goal for Real Madrid in Saturday's feisty derby victory that reignited their LaLiga hopes.
The 3-1 over Atletico Madrid - their fifth straight league win - helped Los Blancos leapfrog their city rivals into second place for the first time since September.
They are on 45 points, five behind Barcelona, who played at Athletic Bilbao in the late game yesterday.
Real continued their revival under Santiago Solari in another impressive performance at the Wanda Metropolitano, aided by some fortunate decisions.
"LaLiga is there to fight for, there are a lot of points to win and any team can make your life hard," said Real captain Sergio Ramos.
"Winning the league motivates us, it's a really balanced competition and we have to keep fighting for it and make life difficult for Barcelona."
Bale had been left out of the starting line-up for the second time in four days, after he was also a substitute against the Catalans in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday.
He ended the hosts' hopes of a comeback on 74 minutes after Ramos' penalty put Real in front at half-time, with Antoine Griezmann earlier cancelling out Casemiro's acrobatic opener.
The Welshman's goal was not lost on Solari, even if his celebration drew criticism, after he appeared to make an insulting gesture towards the Atletico fans.
"It's great for Gareth," said the coach. "He was very happy and happy about his goal, which helped decide the game, because the game was alive and he finished it."
By the time Atletico's Thomas Partey was sent off with 10 minutes left, the game was up and Courtois could have been forgiven for breathing a sigh of relief at the final whistle. The Belgian, who spent three years at Atletico, was playing in the white of Real for the first time at the home of his former club.
He was whistled during the warm-up and before kick-off, as the Atletico ultras behind the goal hurled dozens of toy rats towards his head. A sign read, "Thibaut - Rata", just to underline the point.
Alvaro Morata had gone the opposite way, also via Chelsea, after starting out at Real. He was cheered and, despite a quiet game, would have scored but for the video assistant referee (VAR) ruling out an impressive lob in the second half for offside.
The system was also involved in the penalty incident which saw Jose Gimenez dive in from behind on Real midfielder Vinicius.
The foul might have been outside the box, but the VAR disagreed.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
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