Cristiano Ronaldo's hat-trick in 4-1 victory for Real Madrid against Espanyol could not stop La Liga going to Barcelona.

Espanyol more than matched their opponents for physical effort in the first half, closing them down in the midfield and in their own half, making Real struggle to find their attacking rhythm. Once again, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo struggled to recreate the dominance of previous performances, and the midfield was little more than adequate.

Ronaldo had the best chance of the half, heading wide at the far post, trying to squeeze in his effort, and shinning a Dani Carvajal cross at the near post weakly at goal. Espanyol were reduced to speculative efforts from distance.

In the second half, Ronaldo put Real ahead when Karim Benzema slid him in down the left, and he drilled a shot past Kiko Casilla.

Then Real threw away the lead when Keylor Navas failed to clear a Pepe backpass, allowing Christian Stuani to close him down and ultimately convert the chance to equalise.

With 10 minutes left, Marcelo exchanged passes with Ronaldo into the box, driving a rising shot into the top corner. Ronaldo made it three after Javier Hernandez chased a Marcelo ball to pull it back for the winger. He then got his hat-trick when he headed in at the back post from a James Rodriguez cross.

Barcelona, though, did enough at Atletico Madrid to secure the title.

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