The world's most expensive footballer Gareth Bale finally makes his mark at Real Madrid on Wednesday, only for Cristiano Ronaldo to upstage his two-goal performance with a hat-trick in a 7-3 victory over Sevilla.
The Welshman welcomed his first league start at the Santiago Bernabeu by scoring twice and setting up two more. Ronaldo passed Ferenc Puskas to go fifth in league goals scored for Madrid with 157.
Karim Benzema also scored twice as Real Madrid's expensively-assembled strikeforce finally clicked into gear in devastating fashion.
Carlo Ancelotti's side have only shown glimpses of their immense attacking potential so far this season, while Madrid fans have not seen the best of Bale as the Wales winger battled for full fitness following his record-breaking summer move from Spurs.
Both those issues were put to bed on Wednesday night though, with the influential Bale scoring twice in the opening half-hour - the second a free-kick that took a huge deflection - while the 100million euros man came close on two more occasions early on.
Bale might also have had a further chance to notch his hat-trick when Madrid were awarded a 32nd-minute penalty but Ronaldo, who was also obviously keen to make a statement of his own in the match, took the kick to open his account for the night.
Ronaldo celebrated that goal with a military salute, seemingly in response to Fifa president Sepp Blatter's comments about the Portugal international which had caused a storm in the build-up to the match.
Madrid and Ronaldo and his club interpreted comments made by Blatter in an address to the Oxford Union last week as a serious slight on the player and led to the Fifa chief apologising on Tuesday night.
Ronaldo did his talking on the pitch on Wednesday, and he completed his hat-trick with further goals in the 60th and 71st minute, both efforts coming in between a second-half brace from Benzema.
Sevilla also impressed as an attacking force in an incident-packed game as well, and they recovered from 3-0 down to 3-2 at half-time thanks to goals from Ivan Rakitic (penalty) and Carlos Bacca just before the break.
Rakitic added his second of the night just after the hour to make it 5-3 and he should really have notched a hat-trick himself only to miss his 75th-minute penalty. Sevilla finished the match with 10 after Stephane Mbia was sent off.
Madrid's win keeps them within six points of leaders Barcelona.
There was a major shock at the Mestalla as rock-bottom Almeria, without a win so far this season, battled back from a goal down to beat Valencia 2-1.
Jonas' penalty put Valencia ahead but second-half goals from Marco Torsiglieri and Aleix Vidal turned the game on its head as Los Che suffered a third successive league defeat.
Also on Wednesday, Real Valladolid fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Real Sociedad, but they were denied a win by Patrick Ebert's injury-time penalty miss.
The visitors looked to be cruising when Antoine Griezmann scored early in each half but Daniel Larsson's goal in the 76th minute got Valladolid back into it and Javi Guerra equalised three minutes later.
Ebert then wasted a golden chance to seal a remarkable comeback win when his last-gasp penalty was saved by Claudio Bravo.
In Wednesday's other game, 10-man Osasuna beat Rayo Vallecano 3-1. Oier Sanjurjo, Oriol Riera and Roberto Torres were on the mark for Osasuna before the hosts lost Miguel De las Cuevas to a 66th-minute red card. Rayo could only pull one goal back though, with Alejandro Galvez netting their consolation.
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