Ronaldo’s Real gets weakest opponent lifeline

Fumbling Real Madrid may have been handed a lifeline and saved further torment by La Liga fixture as they would today face Las Palmas, one of the weakest teams in Spain this term.
Real, it would be noted, are in the middle of their worst run of results under Zinedine Zidane.
For the club, the game against a Las Palmas side that is fighting relegation, is an ideal opportunity to rise from their slump.
Real endured successive defeats for the first time since Zidane took charge in January 2016 when they were beaten by Tottenham Hotspur midweek in the Uefa champions league after a dismal defeat at Girona last weekend.
However, their problems would amount to nothing but a little storm in a kettle when compared with that of Las Palmas.
The Canary Island club is currently placed 18th in the La Liga standings with eight defeats from their 10 games.
The resignation of inexperienced coach Manolo Marquez has not made things any easier for the struggling team, who have lost all four league games under successor Pako Ayesteran, shipping 15 goals in the process.
The team were booed off the pitch by a sparse crowd after their 3-1 home defeat to Deportivo La Coruna last week and in another setback have lost leading striker Jonathan Viera to a hamstring injury.
Everything points to their visit to Madrid being something, Real would lash on to bounce back and return to winning ways.
Talisman Cristiano Ronaldo has managed only one goal in the league this season, but perhaps more worrying for Zidane is the team’s apparent lack of fighting spirit, which helped Madrid come back so often in 2016-17.
Real are third in the Liga standings and eight points behind leaders Barcelona.
It would be noted that they have never won the league after falling that far adrift of the pacesetters.