<\/p>\n
Cristiano Ronaldo’s first-half goal was all that Real Madrid needed \u00a0to beat Malaga as Carlo Ancelotti’s side claimed a 1-0 win at Estadio La Rosaleda to retain the top spot.<\/p>\n
The Portugal international fired home a low strike after beating three Malaga defenders in the 23rd minute to claim a narrow victory for Real which put the pressure back on capital rivals Atletico Madrid who lie second in the overall standings.<\/p>\n
The result left Malaga in 13th place but only three points clear of the relegation zone.<\/p>\n
Ronaldo started off on the front foot and tested Malaga goalkeeper Willy Caballero with a strike from the edge of the area shortly after he forced a block from Marcos Angeleri.<\/p>\n
Isco went close from a corner but Malaga also had an early chance when Roque Santa Cruz headed over from close range in the 13th minute.<\/p>\n
However, it was Real who broke the deadlock midway through the first half when Ronaldo received a ball from Gareth Bale in the left of the box, cut back inside and curled it into the bottom of the net.<\/p>\n
That proved to be the only goal of the game despite several chances for both sides, with Caballero making an excellent save with his feet to deny Ronaldo just over a minute after his score.<\/p>\n
Malaga’s Nordin Amrabat forced a save from Real keeper Diego Lopez just after the half hour mark before he fired over the bar 10 minutes later.<\/p>\n
Isco flashed a shot over the bar early in the second half with Amrabat hardly testing Lopez at his next attempt, the keeper making a comfortable save.<\/p>\n
Real defender Marcelo had a shot blocked by Sergio Sanchez in the 74th minute as both sides struggled to find a breakthrough with Ronaldo’s next chance caught by Caballero.<\/p>\n
Both sides kept plugging away for a goal as the clock ticked down but their search proved to be elusive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
sky<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cristiano Ronaldo’s first-half goal was all that Real Madrid needed \u00a0to beat Malaga as Carlo Ancelotti’s side claimed a 1-0 win at Estadio La Rosaleda to retain the top spot. The Portugal international fired home a low strike after beating three Malaga defenders in the 23rd minute to claim a narrow victory for Real […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,81],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2774"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2792,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2774\/revisions\/2792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}