Athletic Bilbao 0 : 3 Real Madrid - Spot-on Kaka keeps Madrid in title hunt

Kaka scored two penalties as a much-changed Real Madrid proved they will not give up their title bid without a fight after claiming an impressive 3-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao at San Mames.

Kaka netted from the spot at the start of either half following fouls on Angel Di Maria while Cristiano Ronaldo climbed off the bench to net Madrid's third midway through the second period to complete the scoring.

The victory means Madrid, whose title hopes suffered a huge blow last weekend following their home defeat to lowly Sporting Gijon, provisionally trimmed Barcelona's lead at the summit back to five points ahead of the Catalan side's game with Almeria later this evening.

The win was also the perfect start to an important seven days which will see Madrid defend a 4-0 advantage against Tottenham in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday before then hosting Barca in 'El Clasico' next Saturday.

With the big matches now coming thick and fast for treble-chasing Madrid, coach Jose Mourinho opted to make a host of changes for today's trip to fifth-placed Athletic, with only four of last Tuesday's starting XI against Spurs retaining their spots.

However, that overhaul did not seem to upset the capital club as they enjoyed a series of good openings in an entertaining first half.

Di Maria fired a decent effort not far wide in the fourth minute, and then eight minutes later the Argentinian won the penalty that allowed Madrid to take the lead.

The quicksilver winger was brought down by the onrushing Athletic goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz, and Kaka coolly slotted the resulting spot-kick into the corner.

That proved to be the only goal of the first half, but with a little better finishing Madrid could probably have had the game sewn up by half-time.

Gonzalo Higuain, making his first start since November having recovered from injury, was denied by Iraizoz when clean through and then soon after he fired a long-range shot wide of an open goal after Iraizoz had raced out of his area.

Athletic gave Iker Casillas something to do in the 35th minute with a low shot from Iker Muniain, but Madrid were back on the attack again with Di Maria firing into the side-netting and then also lobbing wide after Iraizoz had been caught off his line again.

Kaka saw another effort pushed away by Iraizoz before Athletic finally managed to create some pressure at the end of the half with Carlos Gurpegi firing just wide and Casillas doing superbly to tip over Gaizka Toquero's header.

Casillas was also called into action at the start of the second half to save a Mikel San Jose header, but Athletic's attempted fightback was stopped in its tracks in the 52nd as Madrid made it 2-0 with another Kaka penalty.

Xabier Castillo was adjudged to have brought Di Maria inside the area, and Kaka again made no mistake from the spot, this time firing straight down the centre of the goal.

Athletic had a decent opening to pull a goal back in the 63rd minute but Toquero sliced his shot just wide of goal, and seven minutes after that Madrid guaranteed the points would be returning to the capital with them by netting a third goal.

Ronaldo, who had replaced Higuain just after the hour-mark, latched onto a lofted pass by Kaka and made his way into the area before cutting inside San Jose and scoring with a low shot inside the far post.

That was Ronaldo's 28th league goal of the season and ensured Madrid would not allow Barca to move any further clear ahead of next weekend's showdown at the Bernabeu.