Cristiano Ronaldo scored a goal but missed a penalty as Real Madrid was held 1-1 at Malaga Sunday to drop nine points behind leader Barcelona. Ronaldo put the visitors in front with a header in the 33rd minute but missed a chance to increase the lead a couple of minutes later when his spot-kick was saved by Malaga goalkeeper Carlos Kameni. The host equalized through defender Raul Albentosa in the 66th. Madrid needed a victory to stay nearer the lead after Barcelona won 2-1 at Las Palmas Saturday. Barcelona also has a nine-point advantage over Atletico Madrid, which hosts fourth-place Villarreal later Sunday. Real Madrid has 13 games left to try to stop Barcelona from successfully defending its title for a second consecutive year. Madrid was without the injured Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale, whilst James Rodriguez was only left on the bench by Zidane. Jese Rodriguez was handed a start after scoring Real's second in a 2-0 win at Roma in the Champions League in midweek and should have opened the scoring when he shot straight at Kameni when clean through on 17 minutes. Ricardo Horta missed another glorious chance for Malaga when he fired into the side-netting unmarked at the back post. When the opening goal did arrive it was in controversial circumstances 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 when Ronaldo was brought down by Weligton. Yet, the normally lethal Portuguese from the spot was denied by a fine low save by Kameni. Malaga missed another great chance to level before the break as Navas parried Duje Cop's shot into the air and Sergio Ramos got back to clear the looping ball off the line. 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 center-backs combined for the equalizer as Weligton's low cross was coolly slotted home at the back post by Albentosa. Malaga could even have snatched all three points as Navas was again forced into action by a looping Charles header. However, for the second time this season Malaga did enough to take a point from Real and almost certainly stretch its run without a league title to four years. On Saturday, John Guidetti netted a brace before Celta Vigo survived two late goals by Eibar in a 3-2 win to leapfrog the Basque club into sixth place. Espanyol also ended an eight-round winless streak by beating Deportivo La Coruna 1-0 thanks to Marco Asensio's second-half goal, while Sporting Gijon scored from its sole shot on goal by Carlos Castro to escape with a 1-1 draw at Real Betis.
