Madrid: Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos struck to give Real Madrid a 2-1 win at home to Malaga on Saturday and keep the defending champions two points clear of in-form Valencia. Real were briefly knocked off the top of the table with Valencia’s easy 3-0 home win over Atletico Madrid in an early game on Saturday.

The result left Real needing to extend their perfect home league record, a challenge they met with far more trouble than expected.

Malaga, beaten 6-1 by Valencia last weekend, fell behind in the 25th minute when Ronaldo turned in a Michel Salgado cross for his 19th league goal of the season. Roberto Carlos made it 2-0 with a cracking free kick just before the hour mark but Jose Juan Luque got Malaga back into the game with a well timed run and shot 15 minutes from the end.

Valencia’s victory made it nine goals in two games, following their success against Malaga last weekend.

In Italy, Japanese midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata led Bologna to an impressive 3-1 win at Udinese.

Meanwhile, Arsenal, won 3-1 at Wolverhampton Wanderers while Manchester United won 4-3 over Everton. (As reported in our late city edition Sunday).

Tottenham Hotspur emerged 4-3 winners over Portsmouth and Liverpool twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at Bolton Wanderers and Newcastle took advantage with a 3-1 home win over Leicester City. (Reuters)