Angel Di Maria has underlined the importance of Real Madrid’s 5-0 win over Valencia on Sunday as they closed the gap on arch-rivals Barcelona to 15 points.

The Liga leaders were beaten 3-2 by Real Sociedad on Saturday, and Madrid took full advantage of the Catalans’ loss as they recorded a comfortable away win over Valencia, scoring five goals in a first-half onslaught.

“It is an important win and means that we keep closing the gap,” the Argentina international was quoted as saying on the club’s official website.

“It was a match that we made easy for ourselves. We did things well from the start.

“It was important to keep our winning streak going. There are some matches that are difficult and others that are easier, but this time we had a great match.

“We went out to press forward as we have been doing lately and we got a lot of goals.”

Real Madrid remain third in the table with 40 points from 20 games.