Real Madrid were held to a third consecutive La Liga draw in a 1-1 tie at Girona on Sunday, allowing Barcelona to retain pole position.<\/p>\n
Azzedine Ounahi fired the hosts into a surprise lead before half-time, with Kylian Mbappe earning Madrid a point from the penalty spot.<\/p>\n
After Barcelona beat Alaves on Saturday to move top of the table, Madrid needed a victory at Girona to reclaim top spot but now sit second, a point behind the champions.<\/p>\n
Earlier Alberto Moleiro helped Villarreal, third, move back ahead of fourth-place Atletico Madrid with a stoppage time winner in a 3-2 victory at Real Sociedad.<\/p>\n
Real Madrid’s draw increases the pressure on Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, after recent rumors suggesting his future is insecure in the Madrid dugout.<\/p>\n
“We are up there, it’s all very even, it’s a long season and we have to continue,” Alonso told reporters.<\/p>\n
“I liked the reaction from the players. It was not enough to turn it around but we were close, and we have to continue with the unity we have, being self-critical enough, and wanting to win away from home.”<\/p>\n
Madrid travel to face Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday for a fourth consecutive league match on the road, a game moved because of the club’s participation in the Spanish Super Cup in January.<\/p>\n
“The table will be hard-fought, there will be lots of movement,” added Alonso.<\/p>\n
Mbappe and Arda Guler fired off target for Madrid early on in a hotly-contested but scrappy clash, in front of a raucous home crowd.<\/p>\n
French superstar Mbappe had a goal ruled out for handball moments before Morocco international Ounahi fired Girona ahead, rifling home from just inside the area to stun their illustrious visitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Real Madrid were held to a third consecutive La Liga draw in a 1-1 tie at Girona on Sunday, allowing Barcelona to retain pole position. Azzedine Ounahi fired the hosts into a surprise lead before half-time, with Kylian Mbappe earning Madrid a point from the penalty spot. After Barcelona beat Alaves on Saturday to move …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58048,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58047\/revisions\/58048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}