Real Madrid's head coach Zinedine Zidane attends a press conference at Valdebebas sports city in Madrid, Spain, Nov 25, 2016. [Photo/IC]

Zinedine Zidane admitted his side had an afternoon to forget on Saturday, despite Real Madrid moving seven points clear atop the La Liga standings thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo's double in a 2-1 win over Sporting Gijon.

Victory extended Real's unbeaten run in all competitions to 31 matches, but Madrid was grateful to a late Duje Cop missed penalty to secure all three points against a Sporting side that hasn't won in 10 games.

Fresh from netting a hat-trick against Atletico Madrid the previous weekend, Ronaldo continued his return to scoring form and moved ahead of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez as La Liga's top scorer.

He struck twice inside the first 20 minutes to take his tally to 10 goals in as many La Liga games this season.

Carlos Carmona pulled a goal back 10 minutes before halftime and Sporting missed a huge chance for an unexpected point when Cop blazed his penalty high and wide 12 minutes from time.

"It is a game for us to forget because things didn't go as we would have liked," said Zidane.

"We can't be happy with the content of the game, but that can happen sometimes."