La Liga: Real Madrid go top with a 4-1 win at Granada

Madrid, Nov 22 (IANS) Real Madrid scored an emphatic 4-1 victory against Granada in an away match to move up to the top of the La Liga table on Sunday.

Marco Asensio, Nacho Fernandez, Vinicius Junior and Ferland Mendy scored a goal each for Real Madrid while forward Luis Suárez scored the lone goal for Granada

It was a very good performance by Los Blancos as they picked up all three points at Los Carmenes, and moved up the top of the table.

Suarez scored for Granada and made things interesting at 2-1, but Los Blancos reasserted their control after Vinicius' goal.

Real showed no rust from the international break and soundly defeated Granada at the Estadio Nuevo de Los Carmenes. The result also catapults Real Madrid (30 points) back to the top of the LaLiga table, two points ahead of nearest pursuers Sevilla and Real Sociedad.

Manager Carlo Ancelotti opted for Nacho at center-back with David Alaba, while Asensio was selected in attack alongside Karim Benzema and Vinicius. Ancelotti's decision paid off almost immediately, as Asensio made it 1-0 early on when he collected a surgical pass from Toni Kroos and outraced Granada defender German Sanchez before firing into the goal.

Kroos was in the middle of things on the second Real Madrid goal minutes later by playing off a one-two combination with Luka Modric for a pass that met Nacho at the front post and the defender redirected the ball into the net to make it 2-0 for Madrid.

Granada pulled a goal back towards the end of the first half thanks to an error by Vinicius, who gave away a ball in the middle which led to a Granada break and a Luis Suarez shot that deflected off of Nacho and into the goal, making it a 1-2 at half-time.

The Los Blancos looked to regain control in the second half and a counter-attack restored their two-goal advantage when Benzema slid a pass into Modric, who played a first-time pass for Vinicius to tap into the back of the net for a 1-3 lead.

Any hopes of a Granada fightback ended midway through the second half when Monchu brought down Vinicius with a reckless challenge that drew a straight red card from referee Juan Martinez Munuera, leaving the home side with 10 men.

Real then sealed the match when Mendy completed his well-time run with a strong finish for their fourth goal.