Possibly, Málaga played the best football of the 2018/19 season with a brilliant 3-0 win against Real Oviedo at La Rosaleda. Here are the highlights:
Essentially Ontiveros
He forced the penalty that led to the first Malaguista goal, the work of Adrián. The rival defence went crazy with his continual dribbling and arabesques. He scored a superb goal, psychologically key, before half-time, bringing the fans to their feet. He was substituted in 70’ to a thunderous ovation. Could you ask for more? Perhaps his best match as a professional. In the wild, Javier Ontiveros can cause devastation.
Don’t say goal, say Adrián
The personality of one of the captains is beyond doubt. He launched, with mettle and courage, a decisive penalty at a critical moment of the season. He overcame Champagne and his 1-0 kicked off a big win. During his best goal-scoring campaign as a professional, Adrián has scored nine goals making him the Blue and White ‘pichichi’ with one goal more than Blanco Leschuk. Simply remarkable.
Cifuentes the runner
With humility, work and effort, objectives are accomplished. Although it sounds like a slogan, it isn’t for Miguel Ángel Cifuentes. Based on sweat, mental strength and maximising his qualities, especially the physical ones, the Granada-born player found a gap on Málaga CF’s right lane. His goal against Oviedo, culminating in an almost perfect match individually and collectively, put the finishing touch to a magical night for the number ‘12’.
"With 10 our team plays better than with 11"
The famous quote by the legendary Helenio Herrera was staged last night at Martiricos. The expulsion of Keidi Bare, after the first third of the game, left Málaga with 10 men from minute 30 of play until the final whistle. However, Víctor Sánchez del Amo’s men didn’t let it get them down at any time. The entire squad worked hard to ensure the numerical inferiority wasn’t noticed. Excellent in today’s competitive football in such a tough category.
With the taste of home
A win was certainly needed at La Rosaleda. And what a time to do it. Since the 2-1 against Lugo in January, a home win hasn’t been celebrated. And it has an extraordinary value. It consolidates the team in the promotion play-off positions, moving 5 points away from Oviedo (plus goal average), making the most of the draw between Cádiz and Deportivo to surpass both rivals in the table, accumulating two consecutive wins counting the next one (Reus) by decree, exciting the fans facing the promotion dream… Yes, they were far more than three points.
