Taty Castellanos became the first player this century to score four past Real Madrid in LaLiga as Girona beat Los Blancos 4-2 at Montilivi on Tuesday to put Barcelona a step closer to the title.

Madrid went into the midweek round of fixtures 11 points adrift of their bitter rivals with eight games left, and this deserved defeat could see the gulf widen even further.

Castellanos netted twice inside 24 minutes to put Girona in charge, and although Vinicius Junior pulled one back just after the half-hour mark, Madrid largely looked blunt without the injured Karim Benzema.

Girona picked up where they left off at the start of the second half, Castellanos quickly completing his treble before adding a fourth that rendered Lucas Vazquez's late goal irrelevant.

Michel's side raced into an early lead.

Rodrigo Riquelme instigated a wonderful move with an incisive disguised ball into the box for Ivan Martin, who backheeled to Miguel Gutierrez, and his first-time cross was nodded home by Castellanos.

He got his second in the 24th minute, blasting home after nudging Eder Militao out of the way and racing on to a hopeful Arnau Martinez punt.

Vinicius nodded in Marco Asensio's right-wing cross in at the back post to earn Madrid a lifeline.

But the two-goal deficit was restored 36 seconds after half-time as Castellanos guided Yan Couto's delivery home.

Any remaining doubt about the outcome was then put to bed just past the hour, Castellanos heading a deflected cross past the unconvincing Andriy Lunin, with Vazquez's Vinicius-assisted tap-in too little, too late.