Cristiano Ronaldo moved up to third on Real Madrid’s all-time top scorers list after he found the net in a comfortable away victory over Elche in La Liga.The Portugal forward scored the 290th goal of his Madrid career to climb above Carlos Santillana and is now 33 goals behind Raul’s record of 323.

Karim Benzema had put Real ahead with a scrappy opening goal before Ronaldo powerfully headed in a second.

Real’s advantage over Barcelona at the top of La Liga is now four points.

Real Madrid had claimed on their website that Ronaldo reached the 290-goal milestone  in their Champions League last-16 tie against Schalke on 18 February.

However, La Liga officially awarded a goal that the club had credited to Ronaldo in a game against Real Sociedad in September 2010, to Portuguese compatriot Pepe.

Coming into the game against Elche, Carlo Ancelotti’s Real side were seeking to capitalise on Barca’s 1-0 home loss to Malaga on Saturday, in the Italian’s 100th game in charge.

Benzema thought he had put the European champions ahead in the first half with a brilliant overhead kick that went into the bottom corner, but the referee whistled for an infringement.

The France striker scored with an altogether less spectacular effort that did count 11 minutes into the second half.

Ronaldo’s cross from the left flank was deflected off Elche defender David Lomban on to goalkeeper Przemysław Tyton and into the path of Benzema, who tapped into a vacant net.

Ronaldo then made the points safe when he got on the end of Isco’s left-wing cross to send a powerful header past Tyton.

Elsewhere, David Moyes’s Real Sociedad moved up to 10th in the table after a 4-3 win over Sevilla at the Anoeta Stadium, Villarreal beat Eibar 1-0 while Athletic Bilbao completed a narrow 1-0 victory over Rayo Vallecano.