Zinedine Zidane's side were held to a 1-1 draw at Malaga on Sunday and are now nine points behind Barcelona in the title race, leaving the Primera Division out of reach once again


Real Madrid can kiss goodbye to La Liga for another year. Zinedine Zidane's men dropped two more points in the Primera Division on Sunday and now need a miracle to catch Barcelona. It isn't going to happen.


Barca beat Las Palmas in a hard-fought match on Saturday and after their 2-1 win in Gran Canaria, goalscorer Luis Suarez said: "These are the games that win you league titles."


And 24 hours on, those seemed like wise words. While Barca came through their tough test, Madrid flunked theirs with a 1-1 draw at Malaga. It was Zidane's third away match in La Liga, all in Andalucia, and those have yielded one last-ditch win (at Granada) and two ties (at Betis and Malaga). Simply not good enough.


Madrid have not won La Liga since Jose Mourinho's second season in Spain in 2011-12. The Portuguese's successor Carlo Ancelotti then claimed four trophies including the Champions League, yet failed to bring back the Primera Division title to the Santiago Bernabeu in his two campaigns in charge and there will be no championship this time around either.