man Malaga maintained its impressive home record with a 2-1 victory over Villarreal Monday that kept its European ambitions on track. The Andalusian side has set its target on upsetting the old order in the Spanish top flight following investment from Qatar's Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani and currently lies in fifth place after a hard fought win. Malaga has won every match at La Rosaleda so far this season except for the visit of Real Madrid and started well with French midfielder Jeremy Toulalan scoring a rare goal after four minutes. Villarreal was on the back foot but equalized through Marco Ruben after a fine run from Borja Valero. The visitors came more into the game as the first half continued but five minutes from the break Malaga got what proved to be the decisive goal through Isco Alarcon after an initial shot from Jose Rondon had been saved by Villarreal keeper Diego Lopez. Villarreal, which has not won away since beating Athletic Bilbao eight months ago, rallied and the hosts were reduced to 10 men when Toulalan was shown a second yellow card. Then, on 76 minutes, Valero saw a shot tipped onto the cross bar but there was no way back for the visitors. Barcelona crashed to a shock 1-0 defeat at Getafe Saturday and now trails Real Madrid, which came from a goal down to beat nine-man derby rivals Atletico Madrid 4-1, by six points. It was the first defeat of the season for the reigning Spanish and European champion as Getafe frustrated its illustrious visitor, grabbing the three points thanks to a second half header from Juan Valera. Barcelona's last defeat came on April 30 when it lost 2-1 at Real Sociedad, while Saturday's drama added an extra edge to the first Clasico meeting in the league between Madrid and Barcelona, which takes place on Dec. 10. Granada-Mallorca game Dec. 7 Granada and Real Mallorca will play the remainder of this month's abandoned La Liga match on Dec. 7 at 1830 GMT, the Spanish soccer federation (RFEF) said Monday. Granada had just taken a 2-1 lead when play was halted in the 61st minute at their Los Carmenes stadium after one of the referee's assistants was struck in the face by an object thrown from the crowd. Granada said the offending article was part of an umbrella and a boy had accidentally sent it flying at the official, gashing his cheek. The RFEF had already fined Granada $8,000 over the incident and ruled that the rest of the match would be played behind closed doors. The Andalusian side is 16th in the standings on 12 points from 12 matches, one point behind Mallorca in 15th. — Agencies Police question Terry British police have quizzed Chelsea and England football captain John Terry over claims that he racially abused QPR defender Anton Ferdinand, British media reported Monday. A Metropolitan police spokesman confirmed that a 30-year-old man, named as Terry by BBC and Sky News sources, had been interviewed under caution Friday. “Police were notified of an incident on Sunday 23 October involving alleged racial abuse,” added the spokesman. “This is currently being assessed by officers from Hammersmith and Fulham.” Terry has strongly denied hurling a racist slur at Ferdinand during the stormy west London derby at Loftus Road on Oct. 23. The claims against Terry emerged after video footage circulated on the Internet appearing to show the England star using racist language. Terry denied abusing Ferdinand, claiming that footage had caught him asking Ferdinand if he mistakenly believed he had racially abused him. “I thought Anton was accusing me of using a racist slur against him. I responded aggressively that I never used that,” Terry said. Terry had also insisted he regarded the incident closed after he had spoken to Ferdinand in the dressing room following the game.
