Ronaldo misses penalty as Real Madrid held 1-1 at Malaga

Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty as Real Madrid dropped points they could ill afford to squander with a 1-1 draw at Malaga on Sunday that allowed Barcelona to maintain their nine-point lead at the top of La Liga.

Barcelona, who won 2-1 at Las Palmas on Saturday, have 63 points to Real's 54 with 13 matches of the season remaining, prompting media headlines in Spain saying the Madrid giants have kissed La Liga goodbye.

Atletico Madrid, who play at home to Villarreal later on Sunday and visit Real next Saturday, are level on points with their city rivals.

Ronaldo put Real ahead when he rose unmarked in what TV replays showed was an offside position to head a Toni Kroos free kick over Carlos Kameni and in under the bar in the 33rd minute for his 22nd league goal of the season.

He was denied a second three minutes later when Kameni dived to his left to save the striker's penalty after he had been brought down by Weligton.

Malaga scored a deserved equaliser in the 66th minute when central defender Raul Albentosa, unmarked in the middle of the box, volleyed home a cross from the left.

"Malaga are a great team, they made it tactically difficult. Today we failed but we won't surrender, we'll fight to the end," Real left back Marcelo said. "The draw tastes like a defeat."

The home side would not have been flattered with a victory as Real were indebted to good goalkeeping from Keylor Navas to deny Charles twice, Juanpi and Duje Cop.

Kameni also made saves from Sergio Ramos and Jese but Malaga were the more cohesive team and Real missed the thrust of a centre forward with Karim Benzema absent through injury.

The only consolation for Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane was that the draw at least extended his unbeaten run in his new job to eight matches in both La Liga and the Champions League.

"We did a good job, you can see teams find it hard to score against us," said Albentosa, who is on loan at Malaga from English Championship (second tier) side Derby County.

"Our objective is still survival (in the top flight), fight in all our matches and get all the points we can."

Malaga are 10th in the standings with 31 points, 10 above the relegation zone.