La Liga Results 2015: Scores and Updated Table After Sunday's Week 16 Matches

Real Madrid were in a ruthless mood on Sunday as four-goal hero Gareth Bale led Los Merengues to a 10-2 hammering of nine-man Rayo Vallecano, while Karim Benzema also finished with a hat-trick to his name.

Cristiano Ronaldo added another two for Rafa Benitez's side following Danilo's third-minute opener, but it wasn't until Rayo were reduced to nine men that Real really took control of the clash.

Francisco Seco/Associated Press

Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid failed to move clear at the summit after Diego Simeone's side suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of struggling Malaga, who are now three points off La Liga's bottom three as a result.

Elsewhere, wins for Celta Vigo and Villarreal at Granada and Real Sociedad, respectively, kept both sides in La Liga's top five for the time being, while Athletic Bilbao's good run of form continued against Levante.

Read on for a roundup of La Liga's Week 16 results and a breakdown of how those scores affect the latest standings.

Date	Home	Score	Away
Saturday, Dec. 19	Valencia	2-2	Getafe
Saturday, Dec. 19	Espanyol	1-0	Las Palmas
Saturday, Dec. 19	Real Betis	0-0	Sevilla
Saturday, Dec. 19	Deportivo La Coruna	2-0	Eibar
Sunday, Dec. 20	Real Madrid	10-2	Rayo Vallecano
Sunday, Dec. 20	Real Sociedad	0-2	Villarreal
Sunday, Dec. 20	Granada	0-2	Celta Vigo
Sunday, Dec. 20	Athletic Bilbao	2-0	Levante
Sunday, Dec. 20	Malaga	1-0	Atletico Madrid

Position	Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Barcelona	15	11	2	2	36	15	+21	35
2	Atletico Madrid	16	11	2	3	22	8	+14	35
3	Real Madrid	16	10	3	3	42	15	+27	33
4	Celta Vigo	16	9	4	3	28	22	+6	31
5	Villarreal	16	9	3	4	21	15	+6	30
6	Deportivo La Coruna	16	6	8	2	25	16	+9	26
7	Athletic Club	16	7	3	6	24	18	+6	24
8	Sevilla	16	6	5	5	21	19	+2	23
9	Valencia	16	5	7	4	21	14	+7	22
10	Eibar	16	5	6	5	19	19	0	21
11	Espanyol	16	6	2	8	16	26	-10	20
12	Real Betis	16	5	5	6	13	19	-6	20
13	Malaga	16	4	5	7	10	14	-4	17
14	Real Sociedad	16	4	4	8	17	22	-5	16
15	Getafe	16	4	4	8	18	26	-8	16
16	Sporting Gijon	15	4	3	8	15	23	-8	15
17	Rayo Vallecano	16	4	2	10	18	37	-19	14
18	Granada	16	3	5	8	17	27	-10	14
19	Las Palmas	16	3	4	9	12	23	-11	13
20	Levante	16	2	5	9	12	29	-17	11

Sunday Recap

Real's 10-2 throttling of Rayo Vallecano provided La Liga's biggest headline as Rafa Benitez's men got firing on all cylinders, even if it came after initially falling behind, 2-1, in front of a home audience.

Antonio Amaya cancelled out Danilo's opener before Jozabed scored to put the visitors in front, but the game started to turn against Rayo after right-back Tito was sent off for a lunged attempt at Toni Kroos.

As if competing with 10 men wasn't hard enough, Raul Baena earned himself a red just before the half-hour mark, leaving Bale to run amok alongside BBC team-mates Benzema and Ronaldo.

Ray Vallecano manager Paco Jemez called the result "grotesque" and went into detail regarding his disgust with the outcome, per Goal's Dom Farrell:

"

It's a long time since I've seen anything so grotesque and so embarrassing. It doesn't benefit Madrid, us or Spanish football. When something like this happens, nobody wins.

We feel humiliated but we feel good, despite what happened. My players made a great effort despite everything. We feel stepped on, played with by them.

"

And while one half of Madrid was in exultation, the other was noticeably more subdued as Atletico Madrid failed to move clear at La Liga's summit following Sunday's loss to Malaga, where Charles was the sole scorer.

Gabi was sent off as Los Rojiblancos fell to their first league defeat since September, although ESPN FC's Dermot Corrigan came to the conclusion it was a fair result: 

The visitors were noticeably off the pace for long periods, but Malaga could perhaps be seen as underhanded in some of their tactics, according to Kieran Canning of Agence France-Presse:

Malaga (17) had more than twice as many shots at goal as Atletico (six), and yet Simeone's side managed to hit the target just one time fewer (three) than their opponent (four), per WhoScored.com.

Barcelona will have a game in hand after travelling to Japan for this week's successful FIFA Club World Cup campaign, and news of Atleti's stumble will be welcome news at the Camp Nou.

Francisco Seco/Associated Press

Simeone's side missed the mark in their Sunday away trip, but fellow heavy hitters Celta and Villarreal fared better, as they claimed 2-0 wins over Granada and Sociedad, respectively.

Barca will also have been pleased to see on-loan midfielder Denis Suarez led the Yellow Submarine to three points thanks to his brace against La Real, as shown by the official La Liga YouTube channel (via Barcastuff):

"

Video: Brace Denis Suarez (Villarreal) vs Real Sociedad #fcblive #buybackwatch [laliga] https://t.co/tTO7wvLoyn

— barcastuff (@barcastuff) December 20, 2015"

Villarreal are fifth in the table and just three points off Real Madrid following that win, but Celta remain a point ahead after goals from Iago Aspas and Orellana led them to a 2-0 victory at Granada.

Orellana and Aspas delivered a goal apiece for their side before the half-time whistle, leaving Celta with little more than a clean-up job for the second period to extend their unbeaten run to four matches.

Alvaro Barrientos/Associated Press

Lastly, Athletic Bilbao kept up their pressure on the top places thanks to a 2-0 victory of their own against Levante, where second-half goals from Mikel San Jose and Inaki Williams returned Los Leones to form.

The fixture was close until Williams' 82nd-minute addition calmed Athletic's nerves, bouncing the club back to winning ways after a run of three outings without a victory.