Ronaldo Watches as Gareth Bale Saves the Day for Real Madrid

Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo watched from the sidelines, to which he was restricted due to an injury, as he team fell 0-2 in a match against Rayo Vallecano only to come back after Gareth Bale scored a brace.

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In the first 15 minutes of play, Zinedine Zidane observed how his team apparently was unable to perform without Ronaldo out on the pitch, as amid high winds and heavy rains, Rayo Vallecano's Ardi Embarba and Miku stunned Real Madrid putting them under 2-0.

But then the star from Wales, Bale, geared up and took center stage by connecting a brilliant header of Toni Kroos' corner right before they all headed to the locker rooms for the halftime break.

Six minutes after the pep talk by Zidane, Real Madrid came back out to the pitch with resolve and within six minutes substitute Lucas Vazquez emulated Bale's first half header to level off the match at 2-2.

Zidane seemed to be more at ease, as well as Ronaldo, who in seven seasons has only missed 46 games, including Saturday's due a muscle strain.

And nine minutes before the game was over, Bale came back picking up on a misplaced pass from a Rayo Vallecano player and firing the ball past goalkeeper Juan Carlos and on to the net for a Real Madrid 3-2 victory.

“Bale was phenomenal,” said Zidane, the Real Madrid manager. “We remained patient and knew that we had the players with the talent to make the difference. We started poorly, but finished strong.”

The victory puts Real Madrid on top of La Liga with 81 points if only for a brief moment as Atletico Madrid returned to the first place after a 1-0 win over Malaga.

But Atletico too had only minutes to savor the taste of leadership on top of La Liga after Barcelona soared past both teams with another huge win, this time a 6-0 victory against Sporting Gijon.

Tuesday Against Manchester City

Zidane left the field happy for many reasons. One being the most obvious: a stunning comeback without Ronaldo, and the fact that the Portuguese player will back to the game for the match on Tuesday against Manchester City in a crucial semifinal Champions League match.

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The third reason being that after being shocked with news that Karim Benzema would also miss the game against Manchester, medical staff informed Zidane that the French player was ready to play.

But Manchester City is logically not all that excited with the news.

Manuel Pellegrini said he has proved in the past that he knows how to keep Ronaldo under control and the Manchester City boss also expressed confidence his team can easily repeat successes of the past.

This season alone, Ronaldo has scored 47 goals, including 16 in just 10 Champions League appearances.