Málaga CF hosted UD Las Palmas at La Rosaleda on this sunny Sunday afternoon on matchday 5 of LaLiga SmartBank. The Blue and White starting-11 featured up to four changes in regard to the last line-up, highlighting the debut of Mejías, player number 382 to don the Blue and White jersey.
The other three new faces in Pellicer’s line-up were Ismael Casas, having recovered from injury, as well as Jairo and Luis Muñoz, wearing the captain’s armband, who returns to play at La Rosaleda after three months, forming the double pivot with Escassi. Benkhemassa wasn’t part of the line-up, out at the last minute due to a right hamstring strain.
Equality prevailed during the initial stages of play, during which the Malaguistas claimed a possible hand ball inside the Las Palmas area following a shot from Yanis Rahmani. Just before the half-hour mark, the visitors enjoyed their first clear attacking action with a header from Aythami, blocked by Dani Barrio. In 41’, Las Palmas were left with 10 men as Álex Suárez was shown the red card for a foul on Caye.
After half-time, Pellicer made some changes, bringing on Iván Calero and Jozabed, for Ismael and Yanis who had a yellow card.
The first Malaguista arrival in the second half came in 53’, when a Caye left-footer from the edge of the area narrowly missed the target. Two minutes later, Chavarría made his debut at La Rosaleda, coming on in place of Mejías. Las Palmas made several approaches to Dani Barrio’s area, who saved a powerful shot from Araujo. In 69’, Larrubia replaced Jairo, also making his debut at the Malaguista stadium. Jozabed could have scored on two occasions; first in 76’ when he hooked the ball following a corner that went wide, and again in 81’ with an attempt from inside the area. In minute 88, Julio substituted Caye, playing his first minutes of the season and having time to graze the goal in stoppage time.
At the full-time whistle, points were shared between both teams, with the Malaguistas now having seven in the pot. The next league clash is on Sunday 18th October at 18:15 against Real Zaragoza at La Romareda.
