Real Madrid are second with five points behind Barcelona in La Liga’s table standings.

The gap could even increase to eight points before Los Blancos play as the Blaugrana are poised to defeat Valladolid earlier on Saturday.

Real Madrid

Real Madrid astonishingly lost their last La Liga match when they played away to Athletic Bilbao.

Despite emerging as the better side with a host of chances, Los Blancos’ strikes were never tricky enough to deceive Bilbao’s goalkeeper Iraizoz.

On Sunday, the Spanish giants have the task of recovering from their 1-0 defeat which put them far behind Barcelona ahead of La Liga’s final match-day in the first part of the campaign.

A five-point gap can seem little and big at the same time so for Real Madrid, the sole desire will be to clinch three vital points and move on.

Los Blancos stand the chance of recording their tenth consecutive win at the Santiago Bernabeu since the start of the season.

Real Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso discussed about the necessity of taking home advantage before talking about Malaga:

“It’s important to be strong at home knowing that any visiting team will need to work very hard to get anything. That’s an important step.

“They [Malaga] are in good form. They’ve not lost in nine games and that means that they’re doing very well.

“Being out of the relegation zone, they’ll want to continue climbing. We’ll have to respect them.”

Getafe, Racing Santander, Mallorca, and a bunch of other Spanish Primera Division teams have all tried to test Real Madrid’s strength at the Santiago Bernabeu but none of them have succeeded.

Can Malaga pull out a real shock by at least holding Los Blancos to a draw?

Malaga

Indeed, as it was indicated in Xabi Alonso’s statement, Malaga are just above the relegation zone.

They are in 16th position with 17 points from 18 games just like Valladolid.

However, their spirit will be boosted ahead of Sunday’s clash thanks to their 1-0 triumph over Getafe last week.

Malaga are also unbeaten since November 2009 when they lost at home to Valencia.

They’ve met the likes of Tenerife, Valladolid, Sporting Gijon, and even Sevilla away since then and they’ve not lost one encounter.

What puts Malaga in such a low position in La Liga’s standings is the fact that they’ve picked up so many draws.

Seven out of their last nine matches ended in draws so Sunday will be time for Malaga to go one better and upset Real Madrid at the Santiago to record their third victory in eleven games.