Cristiano Ronaldo scored one and set up another as Real Madrid recorded a 3-1 victory away at bottom club Levante in Wednesday's La Liga action.
The Portuguese forward broke the deadlock with a 34th-minute penalty before an own goal by Levante goalkeeper Diego Marino doubled the away side's lead in Valencia.
A goal from Deyverson halved the deficit before the break, but Madrid made sure of the victory in the closing minutes when Isco swept home Ronaldo's cut-back from the right byline.
The result sees Zinedine Zidane's side move four points clear in third place after nearest rivals Villarreal were held to a 0-0 draw away at Celta Vigo.
Fifth-placed Sevilla triumphed 1-0 win over Eibar, Fernando Llorente grabbing the only goal of the game when he turned inside the area to fire home a shot after 11 minutes. Lillo was sent off for Eibar in the closing minutes.
Aritz Aduriz hit a hat-trick as Athletic Bilbao defeated Deportivo La Coruna 4-1 at San Mames.
Iker Muniain opened the scoring for the hosts after 13 minutes before Aduriz took over proceedings. The forward's treble - completed just after the hour mark - takes his tally for the season in La Liga to 17 goals.
Oriol Riera scored in the 51st minute for Deportivo, who are still yet to register a win in 2016 in any competition.
Valencia recorded a third win in their last four La Liga outings as they battled back from an early deficit to triumph 2-1 at Malaga.
Duje Cop gave the home side a 14th-minute lead, only for team-mate Carlos Kameni to gift Valencia an equaliser. The goalkeeper came off his line to deal with a cross from the right, only to palm it into his own goal when stretching backwards.
Denis Cheryshev scored the winner for Gary Neville's side in a game that saw referee Jose Luis Gonzalez hand out a total of 11 yellow cards, although no one was sent off.
