It was a night of firsts for Málaga CF at the Municipal de Santo Domingo. The inauguration of the second round of LaLiga SmartBank, corresponding to matchday 22, coincided with the first match of 2022 for the Malaguistas.
The starting-11 chosen by José Alberto was made up of: Dani M.; Víctor G., Ismael, M. Peybernes, Javi Jiménez; Escassi, Ramón, Jairo, Antoñín; Paulino and Chavarría.
Neither side had a clear dominance in the first minutes of play. Málaga attempted to control possession, whilst the home side maintained a solid defence without too many problems.
Paulino and Jairo worked together on the right wing, but their promising advance came to a halt as they entered the area. A few minutes later (35'), Juanma outwitted the defence to get in front of Dani M., but his shot went wide.
To bring an end to the first half, Antoñín made the most of the second play following a corner kick to reach the edge of the area. The winger tried his luck with a left-footer that went over the crossbar of Dani Jiménez’s goal.
In the second half, the combination of the Malaguista ‘7’ and ‘10’ returned. Around minute 51, Paulino enabled Jairo, who attempted a finish between the keeper’s legs. The locals reacted with a Xisco header that went wide in 55’.
José Alberto made several changes around the hour-mark. Ismael G. M. and Kevin came on in place of Jairo and Antoñín (59’). However, equality prevailed on the field of play. As the minutes went by, MCF piled the pressure on with the freshness of Kevin and the compass of Ramón.
The hard work reaped rewards. After an extension at the near post, Paulino finished off the great corner taken by the Malaguista number '6' (80'). After taking the 0-1 lead, Málaga countered the rival attacks through possession and collective commitment. As well as a stunning save by Dani Martín in the 90th minute, saving +2 points as per the final score.
The first victory away from home in the first match of 2022 for Málaga CF, now with 30 points and in 10th place in LaLiga SmartBank.
