A chilly night to bring an end to this matchday and the month of February on this Andalucía Day. Natxo González introduced a change to defence, bringing on Peybernes for Isma Casas, and a new triple attack made up of Jairo, Vadillo and Brandon in place of Paulino, Antoñín and Roberto.
One of the changes to the starting-11, Álvaro Vadillo became the protagonist from the outset. In minute 4 he executed Málaga’s first dangerous shot and a minute later he fell inside the rival area. The referee signalled a penalty, but after a VAR check, it was disallowed, and the Cádiz-born player was shown the yellow card. VAR featured again in 10’, this time in the other area. Álex Gallar surpassed Dani Barrio, but the ref annulled the goal for a previous foul by Cartagena.
MCF piled the pressure on without the ball against the visitors who sought dominance in the wide area. Rubén Castro, in 26’, narrowly missed out on opening the scoring as the ball sailed over the crossbar. Luis Carrión’s men amassed the majority of possession in the closing stages of the first half, which featured a yellow card for Escassi that carries suspension. At half-time the scoreboard was unchanged at 0-0.
At the beginning of the second half Málaga generated several consecutive opportunities. First Jairo in 50’ and immediately afterwards Jozabed, launched shots into Marc Martínez’s hands. In 52’, Víctor Gómez crossed to Febas who attempted a close-range finish, but once again the rival keeper stopped the Blue and White goal.
However, the well-deserved goal did arrive. A quality pass by Vadillo from the left reached Brandon at the far post who headed the headed the ball into the back of the net (1-0, 54’). The sixth league goal for the Malaguista ‘pichichi’.
In the 71st minute, Natxo made a double substitution. Hicham and Antoñín joined the match in place of Jairo and Vadillo. Five minutes later, Ramón replaced Febas in midfield. The fans didn’t stop pushing the team on against a rival determined to equalise. In 83’, Málaga made a final change, Chavarría came on in place of goal-scorer Brandon.
In the final stages, during the last minute of a lengthy five-minute stoppage time, a bicycle kick goal from Okazaki prevented a victory for the home side (1-1, 95’).
A point for Málaga CF to total 33 in the standings, with the Blue and Whites marking the safety zone in LaLiga SmartBank, with a +7-point lead over the teams below.
