Ronaldo celebrates his goal against Villarreal with Real Madrid teammates Luis Figo and Guti at the Bernabeu on Saturday. (AFP)

Madrid: Ronaldo scored his 16th league goal of the season to help Real Madrid reclaim top spot on Saturday with a 2-1 win at home to Villarreal.

Argentine midfielder Santiago Solari, playing in place of the injured Zinedine Zidane, opened the scoring after 14 minutes, squeezing a shot under the body of Villarreal ’keeper Pepe Reina. Real continued to press and their second goal came nine minutes into the second half when Guti picked up a loose ball on the edge of the box and passed for Ronaldo to sweep into the roof of the net.

Sergio Ballesteros headed in from a corner four minutes from time to give Villarreal hope but Real held on to extend their perfect home record in the league this season. Victory for Real took them back above Valencia at the top with 46 points from 21 games.

Atletico Madrid edged even further clear in the race for fourth place, and the final Champions League qualifying slot, with a 1-1 draw at Albacete. Nano put Atletico ahead after 31 minutes with a deflected free-kick but Matias Lequi turned a low right-wing cross into his own net for the Albacete equaliser on the hour.

Atletico now have 35 points, two more than fifth-placed Villarreal who failed to live up to their glowing reputation at the Bernabeu as they allowed Real to dominate without playing brilliantly themselves.

Real’s opening goal owed much to a mistake from Villarreal keeper Reina. Luis Figo set up the chance by riding a couple of challenges on the edge of the box before squirting a pass towards Solari, who fired in a shot that Reina should have saved easily. Reina redeemed himself with two good saves from Beckham but there was nothing he could do about Ronaldo’s instinctive blast for the second shortly after the break.

Ronaldo missed with a point-blank chance that should have made the game safe a few minutes later and Villarreal gave themselves a chance of an unlikely comeback when Ballesteros headed in at the near post from a Juliano Belleti corner.

In Italy, former international striker Fabrizio Ravanelli celebrated his return to Serie A with a goal though his new club Perugia still lost 1-2 to Siena on Saturday, while promoted Sampdoria beat Reggina 2-0.

Perugia led until the 87th minute, thanks to Ravanelli’s sixth-minute free-kick, but late strikes by Tore Andre Flo and Fernando Menegazzo ruined Perugia’s hopes of recording their first win of the season. European Cup winner Ravanelli, who signed for the Umbrians last week, quickly broke the deadlock, curling a free-kick past home keeper Generoso Rossi.

The balance of the contest swung decisively in Siena’s favour in the 58th minute when Perugia defender Fabio Grosso was sent off for a second bookable offence.

Perugia keeper Zeljko Kalac preserved his side’s lead with a series of fine saves but three minutes from time he spilled a cross into Flo’s path and the Norwegian striker poked the ball in from close range. Siena piled forward and midfielder Menegazzo sealed the result in the first minute of injury time when he fired through a mass of bodies to beat Kalac at his near post.