MADRID: The crisis at Real Madrid deepened after the world, European and Spanish champions suffered a second LaLiga defeat in three games.

Madrid were beaten 1-0 by Villarreal in the Estadio Bernabeu despite having dominated the game with Gareth Bale having a goal ruled offside and Ronaldo twice hitting the posts.

They were then caught out by an 87th minute strike from Pablo Fornals on the counterattack which provided Villarreal’s first win at the Bernabeu in 19 visits in all competitions.

Real remain fourth in the Liga standings on 32 points and are only one point and one place above Villarreal and trail Atletico Madrid by 10 points after their city rivals won 1-0 away to Eibar thanks to a solitary strike by Kevin Gameiro.

Valencia clung on to beat Deportivo La Coruna 2-1 away to tighten their grip on third place, moving eight points above Madrid although Zidane’s side have a game in hand.

Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said: “We didn’t deserve this, we think we played well but the ball just didn’t want to go in for us and I cannot explain why. We then couldn’t prevent them counter attacking us and it’s really tough on the players.”

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