Real Madrid dropped further points in the La Liga title race after being held to a 1-1 draw at home by Girona at the Santiago Bernabeu.<\/p>\n
The result leaves Madrid facing an increasingly difficult task in the title race.<\/p>\n
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League leaders Barcelona now have the opportunity to extend their advantage at the top of the table.<\/p>\n
If Barcelona win their next fixture, they could move nine points clear with only seven matches remaining.<\/p>\n
The draw also extended a difficult run of results for Madrid across competitions.<\/p>\n
The Spanish giants entered the match following defeat to Mallorca in the league and a 2-1 loss against Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.<\/p>\n
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Madrid initially struggled to establish control against a confident Girona side.<\/p>\n
Girona created the first clear opportunity when Azzedine Ounahi forced a strong save from Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin.<\/p>\n
Madrid gradually improved as the first half progressed but were unable to find a breakthrough before the interval.<\/p>\n
Jude Bellingham came close with an effort from inside the area, while Federico Valverde also tested Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga.<\/p>\n
Madrid finally moved ahead early in the second half through Valverde.<\/p>\n
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The midfielder struck from distance in the 51st minute, with Gazzaniga unable to prevent the ball slipping through his grasp and into the net.<\/p>\n
The goal appeared to give the hosts the momentum they had been searching for.<\/p>\n
However, Girona responded quickly to restore parity.<\/p>\n
Thomas Lemar scored the equaliser in the 62nd minute with a composed finish from the edge of the penalty area.<\/p>\n
The French midfielder found space outside the box before firing a low shot beyond Lunin.<\/p>\n
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The goal silenced the Bernabeu crowd and shifted the pressure back onto Madrid.<\/p>\n
Madrid pushed forward in the closing stages in search of a decisive goal.<\/p>\n
Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 came closest to finding a late winner but saw his effort saved by Gazzaniga.<\/p>\n
The forward also appealed for a penalty after going down in the box late in the match, but the referee waved play on.<\/p>\n
Girona defended resolutely in the final minutes to secure a valuable away point.<\/p>\n
The result leaves Madrid with little margin for error in the remaining weeks of the season.<\/p>\n
Barcelona now have the chance to strengthen their grip on the title race if they capitalise on Madrid\u2019s dropped points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid dropped further points in the La Liga title race after being held to a 1-1 draw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[735,736,92,266,640,84,91,557,600,734,83,819,641],"class_list":{"0":"post-938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barcelona","8":"tag-andriy-lunin","9":"tag-azzedine-ounahi","10":"tag-barcelona","11":"tag-bayern-munich","12":"tag-federico-valverde","13":"tag-girona","14":"tag-jude-bellingham","15":"tag-kylian-mbappe","16":"tag-mallorca","17":"tag-paulo-gazzaniga","18":"tag-real-madrid","19":"tag-santiago-bernabeu","20":"tag-thomas-lemar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}