Real Madrid hold a slender lead over Rayo Vallecano at half time in La Liga courtesy of Cristiano Ronaldo's 15th-minute opener.

The first chance of the match fell to Madrid striker Karim Benzema, who forced a fine save from Ruben after driving into the Rayo box with four minutes played.

Madrid had another chance to take the lead shortly after when Gareth Bale found space outside the opposition box.

The Welshman slid the ball through to Fabio Coentrao, who in turn delivered a cross to the near post which was turned behind by Roberto Trashorras.

Bale had a role to play when Los Blancos eventually made the breakthrough on 15 minutes, picking out Ronaldo, who charged into the area before finding the bottom corner of the net to score his 44th goal of the campaign.

After hitting Rayo on the counter-attack, Bale had a brilliant opportunity to extend Real's real, but he lost his footing as he was about to pull the trigger and the chance went begging.