{"id":91607,"date":"2015-02-15T06:00:34","date_gmt":"2015-02-15T06:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=91607"},"modified":"2015-02-14T19:24:46","modified_gmt":"2015-02-14T19:24:46","slug":"real-madrid-extend-la-liga-lead-deportivo-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=91607","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid extend La Liga lead with Deportivo win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"story_continues_1\" class=\"introduction\" style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">Real Madrid extended their La Liga lead to four points as goals from Isco and Karim Benzema saw off Deportivo La Coruna at the Bernabeu.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">However, it was not a vintage Real display in the final match before they resume the defence of their Champions League crown in midweek, at Schalke.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">Real&#8217;s Cristiano Ronaldo missed from one yard, while he and Gareth Bale were both denied by the bar before midfielder Isco curled in the opener.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">And Benzema dinked in the second.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">Deportivo also had their chances, with Celso Borges denied by the woodwork, while Real keeper Iker Casillas made an outstanding save to prevent Oriol Riera&#8217;s powerful strike from going in.<\/p>\n<div class=\"story-feature image full-width\" style=\"color: #000000;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/81014000\/jpg\/_81014325_benzemagoal.jpg\" alt=\"Real Madrid's Karim Benzema\" width=\"624\" height=\"260\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\" style=\"color: #4f4d4b;\">Real Madrid&#8217;s Karim Benzema sealed victory in the 73rd minute<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">The visitors, who won La Liga in 1999-00, remain 12th in the Spanish top flight with 24 points while leaders Real have 57 points after 23 games.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">Second-placed Barcelona host struggling Levante on Sunday, before champions Atletico, in third with 50 points, play at mid-table Celta Vigo.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">Wins would put the pressure back on Real, who bounced back from last week&#8217;s 4-0 thumping against Atletico.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">They began well against Deportivo with Ronaldo &#8211; who has gone three games without a goal for the first time since 2013 &#8211; striking a free-kick that left keeper Fabri stranded, but bounced off the bar.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">And moments later, Bale drifted past two players before his vicious effort came back off the woodwork.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">Ronaldo should have scored but he failed to connect with Benzema&#8217;s cutback from one yard out, but within a few seconds Isco followed up with a curling shot from 18 yards.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">Benzema added a second when he stole in ahead of Fabri to convert Ronaldo&#8217;s pass.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">&#8211;<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #1c1c1c;\">Source: BBC Sport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Real Madrid extended their La Liga lead to four points as goals from Isco and Karim Benzema saw off Deportivo La Coruna at the Bernabeu. However, it was not a vintage Real display in the final match before they resume the defence of their Champions League crown in midweek, at Schalke. Real&#8217;s Cristiano Ronaldo missed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-91607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}