With regards to the impressive performance by Willy Caballero in the match against Athletic, Pellegrini explains: “I’ve always said that the collective performance of the team is based on the individual performance levels.  Willy made some fantastic saves in the match, as well as Athletic’s keeper who prevented goals from Piazon and Joaquín.  We had five more chances to score than our rival tonight, but both teams did create goal opportunities and performed well collectively.”
 
Following this League victory, Málaga CF is now focused on the Champions League last 16 match on Tuesday against Porto:  “It was so important that we won this League match to maintain fourth place in the table.  There was obviously a lot of attention surrounding next week’s Champions game, but Athletic were a tough team to beat, and were very speedy on the pitch,” says the Blue and Whites’ coach.
 
Pellegrini thinks it’s important to face Tuesday’s historic match after gaining three points tonight:  “To face a match after a victory is different than after you’ve lost a game.  We’re still in fourth position in the League and are now concentrating on qualifying for the Champions League quarter-finals.  However we’ve got a difficult match in Portugal on Tuesday, so it’s good we’re facing the Champions match after a League win.”

A victory from this match sees Málaga CF with 42 points, which confirms their virtual permanence near the top of the table, something which has been longed-for in previous seasons.  Manuel Pellegrini says:  “Two years ago we had 19 points at this time in the season, and things have changed a lot since then.  It’s always important to reach 42 points as soon as possible, and to maintain our ambition to defeat our next rival.”