It was a cold, sunny afternoon for the first official duel between the Blue and Whites and this rival. There was a good atmosphere in the stands, and on the pitch, there were changes to all lines of José Alberto’s starting-11 compared to the Cup clash in Tafalla last Thursday. Dani Martín returned to goal; Víctor Gómez and Peybernes were in defence; Genaro returned to midfield; and Brandon together with Sekou were new to the attack.
In minute 2, Amorebieta sent out a first warning with a dangerous shot by Guruzeta. Genaro, in 5’, tried his luck from distance forcing a superb save by Unai. The visitors’ response led to the first goal, the work of Guruzeta (0-1, 10’). Sekou, with a header from an Escassi cross, appeared in 14’. Two minutes later, the Malaguista number ‘22’ was the subject of a foul revised by VAR, although he was in an offside position, and no penalty was awarded to Málaga.
With a lead on the scoreboard, the visitors awaited the counter-attack. Koldo Obieta had the second goal at his feet, but failed in a one-on-one with Martín (27’). Málaga dominated ball possession although they lacked precision from three quarters of the pitch onwards. The rival, however, was most unforgiving. Guruzeta once again took advantage of an unmarked ball to get a second goal (0-2, 38’). At half-time, the rival maintained their lead.
The tone of play didn’t alter much at the start of the second half. In 55’, José Alberto made his first change. Kevin came on the pitch in place of Brandon. The homegrown player showed spark on the left of the attack.
As the match progressed, Amorebieta’s dominance continued whilst MCF continued to be imprecise, despite their territorial dominance. In 68’, Víctor Gómez could have scored, but the action was disallowed for Peybernes being in an offside position. Immediately afterwards, there was a double Malaguista substitution: Antoñín and Dani Lorenzo, making his league debut at home, replaced Peybernes and Jairo.
Things heightened when Genaro was shown the red card in 77’ following a VAR check. On a positive note, after more than nine months, Pablo Chavarría returned to La Rosaleda. The Argentine striker came on in 84’ in place of Lombán.
The referee added six minutes of stoppage time, during which MCF narrowed the gap with an own goal from Luengo (1-2, 94’). However, there was no time for more and Málaga CF suffered the first home defeat of the season after 10 games.
