Madrid: Lionel Messi will be out for up to eight weeks with knee ligament damage suffered as Barcelona beat Las Palmas 2-1 on Saturday. Barca’s troubles were eased, though, as Real Madrid remain a point behind the Catalans after being held 0-0 at home by 10-man Malaga. Villarreal now lead La Liga as Leo Baptistao scored the only goal of the game against his parent club Atletico Madrid.
Madrid failed to move back to the top of the table as they were denied by an inspired display from Malaga goalkeeper Carlos Kameni. Cristiano Ronaldo had an early goal ruled out for offside before Kameni got down well to twice turn efforts from Jese Rodriguez behind.
Madrid launched wave upon wave of attack towards the Malaga goal, but were repelled by Kameni as he made an incredible save to deny a fiercely struck volley from Ronaldo as his wait to become the club’s all-time leading scorer continued.
Malaga also had their chances to win the game, though, as Keylor Navas produced a stunning save from Juan Carlos’s free-kick, whilst Nordin Amrabat fired wide with just Navas to beat.
Captain Weligton deflected a goalbound header from Ronaldo wide and cleared off the line when Isco had squeezed a shot. However, Madrid claimed the ball had crossed the line before the Brazilian hooked the ball to safety and there was another controversial call seconds later as Amrabat was shown a straight red card for an elbow on Marcelo. Ronaldo had a chance to snatch all three points at the death, but his header flew over.
