La Liga wrap: Ronaldo brace fires Real Madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 150th goal for Real Madrid as the La Liga champions dispatched Granada 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday.

The win was the first of the season for Jose Mourinho’s side, before nemesis Barcelona claimed the three points in a 1-0 win over Valencia to move back to the top of the table as the only unblemished side.

In Madrid, the Portuguese’s milestone was the highlight of a lacklustre performance from Real, who never seemed to click into top gear on Tottenham recruit Luka Modric’s league debut.

Ronaldo opened the scoring in the 26th minute in somewhat fortuitous manner and he doubled his side’s advantage eight minutes into the second half with a close-range finish, before limping off with a suspected knee injury.

Granada’s hopes were put to rest just before the hour mark as Borja Gomez was shown a red card, and Gonzalo Higuain wrapped up matters with a tap-in 14 minutes before the end.

Barcelona maintained their perfect start to the season with a similarly scratchy performance that saw Adriano’s stunning strike the only goal to separate the sides.

The home side started brightly at the Camp Nou and went ahead in the 23rd minute with the Brazilian’s long-range piledriver after Pedro and Lionel Messi had earlier efforts turned away.

Adriano had been one of a few selection surprises, starting at left back ahead of former Valencia defender Jordi Alba, while Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and returning striker David Villa started on the bench.

Athletic Bilbao climbed off the bottom of the table after running out 2-0 winners at home to Real Valladolid.

Following a goalless opening half, Artiz Aduriz and Markel Susaeta scored in the space of six minutes to hand Bilbao their first victory of the season.

Levante came from two goals down to beat Espanyol 3-2 at the Estadio Ciudad de Valencia.

Samuele Longo and Tejera opened up a two-goal lead for the visitors after just 25 minutes of football and went into the break hopeful of ending their winless start to 2012.

However, Levante produced late drama to clinch all three points.

Juanlu and Christian Lell drew the hosts level with two goals in a minute before Raul Rodriguez sent the ball into his own net on 93 minutes, handing 10-man Levante a last-gasp victory.

Meanwhile, despite having goalkeeper Ruben sent off in the 69th minute, Rayo Vallecano did enough to claim a point in a scoreless draw with Sevilla.