Spanish Football News Blog

The Portuguese superstar scored two brilliant goals but then found himself given the marching orders.

Spanish giants Real Madrid defeated relegation candidates Malaga 2-0 at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in the Spanish Primera Division on Sunday night to trim the gap between them and leaders Barcelona to five points. Cristiano Ronaldo scored both goals in the first half, but was sent off 20 minutes before time.

It was in fact the away side who came storming out of the traps at the start. Caicedo went close to putting Malaga ahead when his effort was chipped over the head of Iker Casillas, bouncing off of the cross bar before Real could get the danger away.

Karim Benzema then tried to do the same thing at the other end in the 16th minute. His effort was saved, but the Madrid attacks were forming and starting to come with worrying regularity for the away team.

Xabi Alonso looked in good touch as he pulled all the strings in the middle of the pitch. He played a lovely pass to Ronaldo on 21 minutes and the front man swung his effort towards goal, the ball curling beautfiully, though it went out.

Malaga, to their credit, were still having a go and Casillas was nearly caught out again on the half an hour mark. Lopez found space and tried a lob from range which the Spaniard got back to tip over his bar. It was a rare spell of Malaga pressure.

However, this was to no avail as Ronaldo struck quickly, scoring two goals within minutes of each other. The first came in the 35th minute when he easily passed the ball into the goal following a good cross from Kaka out on the right. Three minutes later he made it 2-0 when he smashed the ball into the top corner of the goal.

Malaga were suffering from the double blow and had no response. Real should have gone into the break 3-0 up, but Benzema wasted a good pass when he sent an effort beyond the far post just before the break.

The second half started in exactly the same way as the first. Real were under no pressure and seemed as though they could extend their lead to 3 or 4-0 when and if they choosed.

Real did have the ball in the net in the 53rd minute after Ramos ran through to finish off a good move that was started by Benzema. However, he looked up to see the flag of the linesman cancelling out any celebration routine he may have had planned in the back of his mind.

Malaga kept going and Gamez had a shot blocked by Ramos that was going straight into the corner of Casillas' goal. However, in truth, Casillas could have gone on holiday as the Madrid efforts reach doubled figures while Malage were on three.

Malaga were then given a rest from the pressure when the two-goal scorer was shown a red card in the 72nd minute. Ronaldo swung an arm while he was trying to get free of a defender and the referee must have seen some intent and made his decision.

It did not matter, in truth, as Real were controlling the game and still getting forward. Arbeloa and Albiol were two of the more unlikely players to break into the Malaga box and both had efforts from range go just beyond the post.

Granero came off the bench as Madrid were forced into a bit of a re-shuffle but the front man should have made the match a certainty were it not for Munua tipping around the post as the game enter the later stages.

Malaga rallied towards the end of the match but Madrid flooded the midfield to make sure that their numerical disadvantage was not taken advantage of. They saw out the game easily and it will be one that Malaga want to forget.

Source: goal.com