Ronaldo helps Madrid end Barca's dominance

Real Madrid's 2-1 win over Barcelona at the Camp Nou on Saturday all but brought an end to Barca's three-year run as La Liga champions.

And it was only fitting that Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winning goal in the 73rd minute for Madrid after substitute Alexis Sanchez had equalized for the home side three minutes earlier.

While Barcelona and Lionel Messi have collected all the trophies in the past couple of seasons, Ronaldo and Real Madrid have played second fiddle to their bitter rivals.

But Saturday belonged to Jose Mourinho's team, which took the lead in the 17th minute through Sami Khedira and beat Barca for the first time in eight matches in all competitions.

Angel Di Maria's corner kick was played to the back post for Pepe, who turned a header on goal that was kept out by goalkeeper Victor Valdes. However, Khedira was on hand to stab the ball home from close range.

Messi set up Xavi 10 minutes later for a great chance, but the Spain international pushed his shot wide of the post.

Madrid was defending well and looking to hit on the counter attack when possible, but Barca leveled the contest 20 minutes from time with Messi once again setting up the chance.

He clipped a pass out wide to Cristian Tello inside the area on the left, allowing Tello to get a clean look at the net. His shot was saved by goalkeeper Iker Casillas, and the rebound was deflected into the path of Sanchez a few yards from goal for the equalizer.

A draw wouldn't have been a terrible result for Madrid, but Ronaldo allowed them to leave with all three points when he got on the other end of a well- weighted ball from Mesut Ozil to round Valdes and fire home the winning goal.