A Cristiano Ronaldo goal in the first half proved sufficient for Los Blancos who will boast at least a four point advantage over their Catalonian rivals when the two meet next week at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Head coach Carlo Ancelotti made a few changes to his normal starting XI that saw a back four of Dani Carvajal, Pepe, Raphael Varane and Marcelo tasked with shielding goalkeeper Diego López. In midfield, Isco made a start in his return to his former club along with stalwarts Xabi Alonso and Luka Modric.
The BBC of Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Ronaldo assumed the bulk of the scoring responsibilities in attack.
Real were aggressive from the outset and had a clear shout for a penalty in the seventh minute when Bale was taken down in the area by Angeleri, but no foul was whistled.
But the goal would come as Ronaldo put Los Blancos ahead in the 23rd minute on a blazing right-footer to beat Málaga goalkeeper Willy Caballero. The Portuguese then nearly doubled the lead just two minutes later but Caballero rescued the Andalusians with a massive stop. Ronaldo would go on to have two other chances to double the lead before halftime but was unable to find the finishing touch.
The visitors suffered some bad luck at the half hour mark when Benzema was forced to leave with an injury and was replaced by Ángel di María.
The pressure from Los Blancos continued into the second half and had the 0-2 only to see Isco fire a shot off target in the 51st minute after receiving a great ball from Di María.
Pepe was lucky to avoid a red card after a studs-up tackle on Duda that left the Málaga man writhing on the Rosaleda turf. But instead of the Portuguese center-back getting sent off, Duda was issued a yellow card for protesting, prompting the wrath of the home fans.
As the match approached the final stages, Málaga pushed for an equalizer while Real were poised to pounce with one of their trademark counterattacks.
The hosts came tantalizingly close to leveling the score on a couple of occasions, including a late Roque Santa Cruz shot that just missed. In the end though, Ancelotti's men hung on to secure a very precious three points.
No comments:
Post a Comment