Figo and Owen lift Real into second spot

REAL MADRID moved up to second place in La Liga after goals from Luis Figo and Michael Owen helped them to a 2-0 win at Malaga.

Figo opened the scoring from the penalty spot midway through the first half, after Zinedine Zidane had been brought down.

Owen then ensured three points with his fifth goal in six games 12 minutes from the final whistle.

The England striker had only been on the pitch eight minutes, coming on for a lacklustre Ronaldo.

Real are still seven points in arrears of leaders Barcelona, who extended their unbeaten streak to 10 games with a 2-1 win over Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday.

Levante carried on their remarkable start to the season with a 1-0 win over Athletic Bilbao and are now third, just behind Real on goal difference while Atletico Madrid and Real Zaragoza played out a 1-1 draw last night.

The pressure increased on Valencia coach Claudio Ranieri after the champions went down 1-0 at lowly Getafe yesterday.

"This has to have been our worst performance of the season," admitted Ranieri.

Valencia have now gone nine games, in all competitions, without a win and the club's disgruntled fans have started to call for the head of the Italian.

In Germany, Bayern Munich put their painful midweek European defeat to Juventus behind them with a 3-0 triumph over Hannover at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday. The win moved Felix Magath's side to within one point of leaders VfL Wolfsburg, crushed 4-0 by FC Nuremberg.

The top of the table is now even tighter with Schalke 04 level on 24 points with Wolves in second while VfB Stuttgart are third ahead of Bayern on goal difference. Schalke manager Ralf Rangnick celebrated his sixth successive league win with SV Hamburg falling 2-1 yesterday.

Hamburg led until the 79th minute before substitute Mike Hanke equalised and then Brazilian Lincoln produced a brilliant late winner.

AC Milan missed out on the chance to reduce Juventus's lead at the top of Serie A to two points when Roma held them to a 1-1 draw last night

AC Milan took an early lead through Andriy Shevchenko's header but the Ukranian failed to return for the second half after suffering a muscular injury and without his presence Milan lost their momentum. Roma equalised shortly after half-time when Vincenzo Montella cashed in on a defensive mix-up to grab his ninth league goal of the season.

Juve suffered their first defeat of the season at Reggina on Saturday. Marco Zamboni, who made his Serie A debut with Juve in 1997 but was released after playing just one match, came back to haunt his former club, grabbing a first-half winner in a 2-1 victory.

Giuseppe Colucci gave Reggina a 12th minute lead, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalised for the visitors 90 seconds later. Colucci was sent off 17 minutes from the end, but the Calabrians held on.

Adriano headed his eighth goal of the season against his former club to salvage a point for Inter Milan at Fiorentina.

Dario Dainelli had given Fiorentina a 26th minute lead, heading in Fabrizio Miccoli's corner.

Inter finished the game with 10 men when Serbian midfielder Dejan Stankovic received his second yellow card in the closing stages.

Fiorentina and Inter are tied on 14 points with Cagliari, who were held to a goalless draw at home to improving Livorno.

Lecce held on to third place despite losing 4-3 at home to Udinese, for whom Czech Republic defender Marek Jankulovski scored the winner from the penalty spot.