Atletico Madrid squandered a chance to cut the gap to stuttering La Liga leaders Barcelona to nine points when they were held to a 0-0 draw at fourth-placed Malaga on Sunday.
Malaga's stormy 4-3 La Liga defeat at Valencia at the weekend, when they finished with nine men on the pitch, left them with a raft of suspensions from the Spanish football federation (RFEF) on Tuesday.
Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty as Real Madrid and neighbours Atletico were held to draws leaving Barcelona with an eight-point lead at the top of La Liga and 13 matches left.
Valencia's Paco Alcacer, Dani Parejo and Pablo Piatti found the target as they took full advantage of the first-half dismissal of Malaga's Sergi Darder to win 3-0 at the Mestalla on Friday.
Barcelona dropped their first points of the La Liga season as their star-studded forward line misfired in a 0-0 draw away to Malaga on Wednesday.
Villarreal went top with a 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid on Saturday after a toothless Real Madrid were held 0-0 at home to 10-man Malaga and Lionel Messi suffered a serious injury as Barcelona beat Las Palmas 2-1.
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