Neat finish: Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal,
center, scores past Almeria's goalkeeper Esteban Andres
Suarez
Record breaker: Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo,
right celebrates his strike with Pepe, left and Karim
Benzema
Real Madrid star
Cristiano Ronaldo tonight broke the Primera Division record for
goals in a single season after netting his 39th of the campaign
against Almeria.
Ronaldo needed just five
minutes of Madrid's final game of the season against
already-relegated Almeria to seal his place in the record
books.
Xabi Alonso's
free-kick to the far post was headed back across goal by Sergio
Ramos and the unmarked Ronaldo was on hand to poke in the opening
goal of the game.
That strike saw Ronaldo move
one clear of the previous all-time record, which he jointly held
with Madrid's Hugo Sanchez, from the 1989/90 season, and the
legendary Athletic Bilbao striker Telmo Zarra, who achieved the
feat during the 1959/60 campaign.
Ronaldo, who had scored nine
goals in his previous three games heading into the fixture, has now
netted 52 in all competitions for Madrid this
season.