There was a great atmosphere in the stands for this Andalusian duel, which featured a significant number of Almería fans. In the run-up to kick-off, there was a minute’s silence in memory of Antonio Benítez and Alfonso Queipo de Llano who recently passed away. On the pitch, Natxo González during his coaching debut at home, made two changes to his starting-11: Javi Jiménez and Jairo, in place of Cufré and Jozabed.
The first shot at goal was from the visitors’ ‘pichichi’ Sadiq, in minute 5. Ramón, in 9’ also tried his luck from distance. Equality prevailed during the first 15 minutes, whilst in 20’, Antoñín made an attempt from the left that was saved by Fernando. For Almería, Umar Sadiq moved between the lines with top-level detail, although the Peybernes-Lombán duo was effective in defensive crosses.
In the final stage of the first half, the scoreboard remained the same, with intense play, but no clear scoring opportunities. At half-time the score was still 0-0.
Málaga kicked off the second half with determination, but Almería’s punch came to the fore. Former Malaguista, Portillo crossed to Sadiq who sent the ball to the far post to put the visitors in front (0-1, 53’).
Ten minutes later, Natxo introduced a double substitution on the attack: Brandon and Kevin came on in place of Jairo and Antoñín. Almería maintained their gameplan, holding possession as much as possible and staying consistent at the back, whilst MCF tried to overcome the impact of the conceded goal and generate chances. Paulino, in minute 72, launched a shot from the edge of the area and the ball sailed over the crossbar.
In 76’, Peybernes was shown the yellow card that carries suspension. Sekou and Jozabed for Roberto and Escassi, immediately afterwards, was the second double substitution for the Blue and Whites. Sadiq, in 81’, could have scored again but the ball grazed the right post. Málaga kept pushing during the final minutes with very long throw-ins from Javi Jiménez and a Jozabed corner. Yet the scoreboard remained at 0-1.
Málaga CF have 32 points in the standings and end matchday 27 in 16th place.