Man City opens three-point lead

Sunderland takes care of Wigan 4-1


LONDON (AP) ― Sergio Aguero scored on an early blunder by goalkeeper Pepe Reina, Yaya Toure and James Milner added goals, and Manchester City defeated Liverpool 3-0 Tuesday night to open a three-point lead in the English Premier League.

On a night of heavy rain, Aguero put City ahead in the 10th minute with a shot that took a slight deflection and bounced past Reina, who dived but missed the ball entirely. Toure doubled the lead in the 33rd with a header and Milner converted a penalty kick in the 75th after Martin Skrtel fouled Toure.

City’s Gareth Barry was ejected in the 73rd minute for his second yellow card, given for bumping Daniel Agger.

Liverpool was without Luis Suarez, who started an eight-game suspension for racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra.

City (15-2-3) has 48 points, three more than Manchester United (14-2-3), which is at Newcastle on Wednesday.

Tottenham (13-3-3) is next with 42 points after winning 1-0 over visiting West Bromwich Albion on Jermain Defoe’s 63rd-minute goal.

In the night’s other game, Sunderland (6-8-6) won 4-1 at Wigan, its fourth victory since Martin O’Neill replaced Steve Bruce as manager. Craig Gardner, James McClean, Stephane Sessegnon and David Vaughan scored for the visitors, who moved into 10th place. Hugo Rodallega scored for 18th-place Wigan (3-11-6).

Madrid rallies to beat Malaga

MADRID (AP) ― Defending champion Real Madrid staged a second-half fightback to beat Malaga 3-2 on Tuesday in the first leg of their Copa del Rey round-of-16 match.

Sergio Sanchez and Martin Demichelis gave visitors Malaga a surprise early lead with almost identical headers inside the first half-hour but Sami Khedira got Madrid’s comeback started with a goal in the 68th minute and Gonzalo Higuain hauled Madrid level two minutes later.

After relentless pressure, Karim Benzema slid home the winner in the 78th.

“The team didn’t start the game as it should have,” said Madrid coach Jose Mourinho. “The second half was completely the opposite. The team wanted to clean out the trash it had made in the first half. The attitude, the concentration of the team changed.”