The win left Real four points clear at the top of La Liga and frustrated the visitors' hopes of leapfrogging them at the summit.

Vinicius received the ball on his chest out wide, cut in from the left and unleashed an effort from outside the box in the 87th minute to complete Real's comeback after they fell behind early.

Sevilla went in front in the 12th minute with a header from Rafa Mir, but a mistake by goalkeeper Bono allowed Karim Benzema to equalise before halftime.

Sevilla did their best to keep Real at bay with a sterling defensive effort in the second half, but the in-form Vinicius scored his ninth league goal this season to snatch all three points.

"Great players like Vinicius are like that. If you give them one opportunity, they will punish you," Real midfielder Casemiro told reporters.

In his fourth season since arriving in Madrid from Brazil as a teenager, Vinicius has been arguably the best player in the league this campaign.

Carlo Ancelotti's team moved to 33 points from 14 games, four ahead of Atletico Madrid and Real Sociedad.

Sevilla are fourth, with 28 points.

Atletico turned around a poor first-half performance to score four goals after the break in a 4-1 win at Cadiz.

Thomas Lemar, Antoine Griezmann, Angel Correa and Matheus Cunha were all on target as Atletico won when scoring four or more for the first time in all competitions this season.

Cadiz scored their only goal to make it 3-1 late in the second half, courtesy of a mistake from goalkeeper Jan Oblak who punched the ball into his own goal.

Cadiz are still winless at home this season.

Former leaders Sociedad lost their first league game in more then three months, going down 1-0 to Espanyol.

Fifth-placed Real Betis recorded a comeback 3-1 win over bottom side Levante with Juanmi netting a second-half hat-trick.

Australian Associated Press