Odd game. But Real have the win they needed, if not a scoreline that reflected their dominance, and stay in touch with those at the top. Thanks for reading everyone - good night.

Peeeeeeeeep.

90 mins: Booking for Martin, after pulling Isco back. And that’s the Real man’s last action, as Borja Mayoral comes on for the last few seconds.

88 mins: Ramos almost makes a frightful arse of himself by swinging for a clearance, missing it then falling down, but he manages to stab the ball away from trouble. Lucky boy.

87 mins: Just running down the clock now. Everyone’s happy with the result. Well, not happy: but everyone would be perfectly happy to go home at this stage. Ronaldo whips in a brilliant cross from the left, Vasquez gets a toe on it but can’t direct it past Pau Lopez.

84 mins: Ronaldo is down: repeat, Ronaldo is down.

Oh, no, wait he’s up again.

82 mins: Sub for Real: Modric off, Dani Ceballos on.

81 mins: Asensio flicks the ball into the box from the middle, Isco stretches to put it back into the danger area but it’s just behind Vasquez, and they can’t finish things off.

80 mins: Modric advances towards the goal with some purpose, shoots and it takes a whopping deflection off David Lopez: it could’ve gone anywhere, but luckily for Espanyol it went way wide.

78 mins: Hermoso chases a ball out of play with Ronaldo, giving him a little shove on the way and they have words. Not enormously friendly ones, I’d wager.

77 mins: A booking for Casemeiro: he’s not happy about it, on the basis that he got the ball, the only slightly issue being that he had to plough through Garcia’s legs in order to get it.

75 mins: Free-kick for Espanyol as they try to recover from that one-two punch, but Granero hits the cross too long.

71 mins: Espanyol really should be level, but instead they’re 2-0 down. Ramos is tackled in his own six-yard box, the ball is cut back to Baptistao with what is close to an open goal but Nacho is there to do just enough and put him off. Then a few seconds later, Darder is robbed in midfield by Ronaldo, Real streak forwards and Isco finds himself in some space, near the penalty spot, and he guides it into the corner.

Oh boy, a rough minute for Espanyol...

69 mins: Asensio doesn’t quite have it today. He lines up a shot from about 25 yards with plenty of space ahead of him, but he drags is well wide. Meanwhile a sub for Real: Kroos is off, and Lucas Vasquez is on. An attacking move.

68 mins: Third sub for Espanyol: Sergio Sanchez goes down, pointing to something or other in his leg, and he’s replaced by former Real (and QPR) man Esteban Granero.

65 mins: Yellow card for Sanchez, who stops a nascent Real attack by rather cynically taking out Isco.

64 mins: Ach, great chance for Espanyol. Baptistao dashes down the right side of the area as they counter attack, he has Moreno in absolutely acres to his left, but the pass is poor and easily cut out. Then the same player chases a pass over the top and could be in on goal, but Navas is off his line like a shot to intercept.

62 mins: Ronaldo goes for a hooter of a first-time volley from a cross, but his left-footed effort just skews up in the air and goes over his head.

59 mins: Real have a corner from the left, it makes its way out to Modric about 25 yards from goal and he shoots...badly. All a bit disjointed from Real in the second 45.

56 mins: Bit of a lull. Real aren’t dominating like they were and while Espanyol are attacking a bit more, they’re still having problems breaking through. Ramos is moved to shout a bit at his colleagues, though.

53 mins: Modric chips a cross from the right corner of the area looking for Ronaldo, but it was too high and the great man looked a offside anyway. Other than that, it was good.

50 mins: Another chance for Espanyol: Navarro finds himself in space on the right side of the area, he shoots but Navas spreads himself and saves. Honestly, if Real contrive to throw this away then the Bernabeu needs to be slowly dismantled brick-by-brick and quietly used to build a donkey sanctuary.

49 mins: Espanyol counter down the left channel but Baptistao, with a couple of players to his right but a clear path to goal in front of him, for some reason tries to play in a colleague. He chose...poorly.

48 mins: Isco and Nacho - who absolutely sound like a knockabout comedy duo - try to create a crossing opportunity on the left, but the latter can only skew it behind.

46 mins: And we’re away for the second half. No changes for Real because, well, why would they?

The players are coming out, and it looks like Espanyol are making changes: Sergio Garcia is on for Jurado, and Marc Roca is off, replaced by Marc Navarro. Not sure whether that will mean a change in shape, but anything has to be worth a go.

One way traffic doesn’t do this justice. Real should be at least three up, so it’s perhaps actually not a surprise that they were almost hit with that sucker punch at the end there. Easy for your concentration to go when you’re this dominant.

Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

44 mins: And now they hit the post! A cross comes into the Real box from the left, Real make a massive balls of trying to clear it and the ball drops to Moreno, whose snap shot beats Navas and hits the base of the post. It would have been on of the great football injustices had Espanyol gone in at half-time level here.

42 mins: A shot! Espanyol have a shot! Moreno brings the ball down on the right, with Nacho claiming handball, he cuts in and propels the ball towards goal, but that’s about the best we can say about it. It dribbled into the arms of Keylor Navas. But hey - a shot. And on target too.