The big story: Madrid wrestle back four-point lead

Real Madrid were nowhere close to their best but did just about enough against Malaga at the Santiago Bernabeau to get three points on the board to keep pace at the top of the Spanish La Liga table.

It was skipper Sergio Ramos who scored both the Madrid goals, which came towards the end of the first half. Juanpi’s goal in the second half made for an interesting finish but Los Blancos’ strength this season has been their ability to close down games effectively.

2017 has been anything but memorable for Zinedine Zidane’s side so far, with two consecutive losses preceding Saturday’s match. But the game saw a return to the winning formula that saw Madrid become runaway leaders for much of the season. At the end of the game, a section of the Madrid fans booed their leading man Cristiano Ronaldo, whose scoring boots have deserted him over the past month.

Other top stories

Cricket

  • England opener Jason Roy, who has showed terrific form in both the ODI matches against India so far, has rued not kicking on after scoring 73 and 82. “On both occasions I needed to stay in and get big hundreds. I should have done that, that was the plan,” Roy said.
  • The third day’s play between New Zealand and Bangladesh at Christchurch will see a delayed start because of persistent rain. The match is delicately poised with the Kiwis at 260/7 in the first innings in reply to Bangladesh’s 289.
  • A group of leading Australian doctors are urging the ban of alcoholic sponsorship in the game, stating that it is harming young minds. An ABC report quoted a doctor commenting, “We know this type of marketing leads children and adolescents to start drinking earlier and makes young drinkers prone to binge drinking patterns.”

Football

  • Brazilian club Chapecoence FC, who lost 19 members in a plane crash in late 2016 played their first game since the tragedy struck the club. In the charity game, Chapecoence played Brazilian champions Palmeiras with the game ending in a 2-2 draw. The first-division side lifted the trophy in an emotionally charged presentation ceremony, which also included the three survivors of the crash – Jackson Follmann, Neto and Alan Ruschel.
  • In the Italian Serie A, Napoli moved within a point of league-leaders Juventus, who have two games in hand, with a 2-1 win against AC Milan. Lorenzo Insigne and Jose Callejon scored for Maurizio Zarri’s side, who are now unbeaten in 10 straight games.
  • West Ham United coach Slaven Bilic said wantaway playmaker Dimitri Payet can leave for “less money than his value” in this winter transfer window. The Hammers cruised to a 3-1 win against Middlesbrough at the Riverside on Saturday. 
  • Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp came down heavily on his “passive” defence in the wake of his side’s 2-3 loss to Swansea City on Saturday.
  • In the German Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund jumped to fourth in the table with a 2-1 win against 10-man Werder Bremen. RB Leipzig kept pace with Bayern Munich at the top with a commanding 3-0 win against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Tennis

  • The road to the quarter-finals got underway at the Australian Open with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova stunning veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-3 in the last 16. 
  • Veteran Venus Williams progressed to her 37th Grand Slam quarter-final and set a showdown with Pavlyuchenkova with after downing German Mona Barthel 6-3 7-5