Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid efficiently dispatched nine-man Malaga 6-2 at Bernabeu in La Liga's re-arranged fixture on Wednesday, to make Barcelona wait before clinching the title.
Goals from Raul Albiol, Cristiano Ronaldo,
Mesut Ozil, Karim Benzema, Angel Di Maria and Luka Modric wrapped up the
win for Madrid, with the visitors ending the match with nine men
following dismissals for Sergio Sanchez and Martin Demichelis.
Ronaldo
celebrated notching his 200th goal for the club in 197 appearances,
smashing home an indirect free-kick in what proved to be a one-sided
affair.
Albiol gave his side a dream start
after merely three minutes, heading home a Modric corner at the back
post, but initial good work was undone when Malaga replied with their
own set piece conversion 12 minutes later, as Roque Santa Cruz escaped his marker at the to tap home.
On
21 minutes, Ronaldo was tugged down by Malaga's Sergio Sanchez in the
visitors' box, resulting in a penalty and a red card produced for the
Spaniard. Despite stepping up assuredly, Ronaldo saw his penalty effort
saved brilliantly by the toe of Willy.
The mood inside Bernabeu was to change only minutes later, as Ronaldo
made no mistake from an indirect free-kick from 10 yards, blasting the
ball into the top right corner - despite debatable positioning from both
the Malaga wall and goalkeeper.
Just after the half hour mark, it was three for Los Blancos, as Malaga fell victim to the trademark Real Madrid counterattack. Ozil was threaded through on goal by Gonzalo Higuain, before chopping nicely inside Antunes and sliding the ball past Willy.
Malaga were not be be counted out of the game before the half time whistle, however, as Antunes
found the net from an advanced position. After being laid off by Javier
Portillo, the left-back cut inside before unleashing a right footed
drive into the top corner, leaving Diego Lopez with no chance.
A
forced change of goalkeeper proved to make no difference to the
first-half onslaught of Mourinho's men, as Ronaldo toyed with substitute
Carlos Kameni, before squaring the ball for Benzema to tap home unmarked in first half stoppage time.
The
second half started in a different vein to the first, as Madrid began
to press and exert their dominance as a result to their extra man, but
goals and clear cut opportunities were not forthcoming.
Despite a 20 minute lull, the away side couldn't stay resilient, and it was five on 64 minutes. The tireless Modric picked up a goal for all of his good work, finding the inside of the post with a long-range strike.
Things
went from bad to worse for the visitors in the 73rd minute, as
Demichelis was shown a second yellow for bringing down Ronaldo, halting
the Portuguese international's mazy run.
Di Maria
ended the rout in style in second half stoppage time, firing a low
drive into the bottom corner, despite Kameni's best efforts to get down
to his right.
Mourinho reaches the 80 point mark in style, and
his Real Madrid side move eight points ahead of rivals Atletico with
only three league games left to play.
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