Málaga CF faced Real Zaragoza on matchday 16 of LaLiga SmartBank on a cold November night at the iconic La Romareda stadium (Saturday 19, 21:00).
The match, even between both sides in the initial stages, became an uphill struggle for the Blue and Whites (wearing black on this occasion) from very early on. Mel's team was left with one less man on the pitch due to the expulsion of Javi Jiménez. The referee showed the left-back a direct red card in the 14th minute.
The locals made the most of their superiority to increase their presence in the Malaguista area, but neither the defence nor a phenomenal Rubén Yáñez allowed them to take the lead on the scoreboard. In the 29th and 39th minutes, the keeper made extraordinary saves that allowed him to keep a clean sheet. At half-time the scoreboard remained level.
In the second half the tone of play was similar to the first. Real Zaragoza attempted to impose themselves, taking advantage of their numerical superiority, but an imperial Yáñez closed the door on them over and over again. In 63', 64' and 76' the goalkeeper executed some miraculous saves that prevented a Zaragoza goal, to the disbelief of those present.
Haitam joined play in 78’ and barely took a minute to turn everything upside down. The winger entered the area with great ease from the right and opened the scoring with a precise and highly aesthetic shot that found the net at the far post, completely unattainable for the local goalkeeper (0-1, min 79).
The locals then went all out on the attack and finally managed to equalise. Giuliano Simeone took advantage of the sea of legs that obstructed Yáñez's vision to make it 1-1 after 88 minutes.
The last few minutes were very tense but didn’t affect the final result. The match ended in a draw giving MCF a point that, due to the merit of what was played, must be a turning point.
