Agence France Presse
Madrid, Feb 22: Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty as Real Madrid’s hopes of catching La Liga leaders Barcelona were all but ended with a 1-1 draw at Malaga here Sunday.
Madrid remained nine points behind Barca with 13 games to go after Raul Albentosa cancelled out Ronaldo’s opener. Atletico Madrid also failed to gain significant ground on Barca as they were held 0-0 at home by Villarreal to move eight points behind in second.
However, Gary Neville’s upturn in fortunes as Valencia boss continued with a third win in a week, 2-1 at Granada. Zinedine Zidane’s men were left to rue Ronaldo’s miss from the spot to make it 2-0 before the break when Carlos Kameni dived to his left to parry the three-time World Player of the Year’s effort.
The visitors were lucky to go in front as Ronaldo headed home Toni Kroos’s free-kick despite clearly standing in an offside position. There was no doubt about the penalty award two minutes later, though, when Ronaldo was brought down by Weligton. Yet, despite being normally lethal from the spot, the Portuguese was denied by a fine low save by Kameni. Malaga missed a great chance to level before the break as Jesus Navas parried Duje Cop’s shot into the air and Sergio
Ramos got back to clear the looping ball off the line. And Navas then made an incredible stop just after the restart when Nacho turned Juanpi’s cross towards his own goal. Yet, the Madrid stopper was finally beaten when Malaga’s two centre-backs combined for the equaliser as Weligton’s low cross was coolly slotted home at the back post by Albentosa.
Chances were far harder to come by as the two best defences in the league stood firm. Atletico’s top scorer Antoine Griezmann headed Juanfran’s inch-perfect cross just wide before Angel Correa’s audacious chipped effort forced Villarreal goalkeeper Alphonse Areola into his only serious save after half-time. And Villarreal could have snatched all three points on the break when Cedric Bakambu blazed over with just Jan Oblak to beat.
