Málaga CF drew against Levante UD, at La Rosaleda, on matchday 32 of LaLiga SmartBank. A point for the Blue and Whites, a provisional nine away from safety.
Friday night and once again there was a spectacular attendance at Martiricos, with more than 23,000 fans in the stands. On the pitch, Sergio Pellicer repeated the same starting-11 from the last game in Las Palmas.
The rival, the team led by former Malaguista player Javi Calleja, is one of the clear favourites for promotion. The Blue and Whites got off to a good start, with a couple of dangerous attacking moves by Juande in the first quarter of an hour. Cristian, very active with his usual repertoire of crosses, launched the ball into the side of the net in 19'.
The Marbella-born winger, in 28', assisted Fran Villalba, who finished from close range, yet he stumbled and ran into the rival defence. Ramón, after a great action by Lago Junior, came close to the goal with a shot from the edge of the area in 30'. Levante almost opened the scoring in minute 33' with a header from Iborra following a corner.
In the 43rd minute, De Frutos appeared with a dangerous shot near Yáñez’s goal. At half-time the score remained 0-0.
As the second half kicked off, there was little change in play. However, Pellicer made a double substitution in 57’, bringing on Chavarría and Rubén Castro for Ramón and Fran Sol. A minute before, Cristian combined with Lago Junior and the Ivory Coast-born player’s attempt hit the right post.
In the 61st minute, the ref sent off Juande with a double yellow card. Immediately afterwards, Escassi replaced Fran Villalba. A few minutes later, the number '23' suffered a hard tackle by De Frutos, who was shown a straight red card. Balance returned to play with 10 men on both sides.
In 76', Bouldini led Yáñez to make a superb save after an acrobatic shot in the heart of the area. Midway through the final stretch of play, Pellicer made his final changes by bringing on Luis Muñoz and Juvenil Álex Calvo – making his debut at La Rosaleda – in place of Lago Junior and a limping Escassi due to a blow that caused a cut to the head.
Rubén Castro, in 86’, scored what may have been the winning goal. But the referee, after a VAR review, disallowed the goal for Chavarría's previous action being offside. Nine minutes of stoppage time were added, during which the team didn’t lose faith, but it wasn’t to be. The 0-0 final result gives MCF one more point in the table, provisionally nine points away from safety in the division.
