Villarreal 0 - Málaga 1

Villarreal: López Vallejo; Belletti, Unai, Quique Alvarez, Arruabarrena; Galca, Josico (Aranda 55'); Jorge López (Xavi Gracia 85'), Víctor, Calleja (Guayre 46'); Palermo. 4-2-3-1.
Málaga: Contreras; Josemi, Fernando Sanz, Roteta, Valcarce; Gerardo, Romero (Sandro 65'), Juanito, Iznata (Duda 80'); Darío Silva (Leko 65'), Dely Valdés. 4-4-2.

Goals:
0-1. 08. Gerardo. Hit free kick from left of area round wall and into top of net.

Málaga off to the best possible start against re-instated Villarreal in the all Spanish final, winning the first leg away from home 0-1. Joaquín Peiró drafted in his two Uruguay internationals Romero and Darío Silva for this game, putting out a side similar to the one expected to start the league. Víctor Muñoz was also back to full strength, Arruabarrena returning from a one match ban and Unai coming in to the back four for Quique Medina.

An almost capacity 16,000 crowd turned up at the Madrigal stadium, despite the fact that Villarreal had only been given a reprieve a few days earlier after being eliminated by Troyes in the semi-final and then reinstated after the French side were disqualified for fielding an unregistered player. Belletti gave them hope in the opening minutes with his incursions down the right flank, but Málaga showed their mettle with Iznata shooting just wide moments later.

And then the visitors took the lead, Gerardo finding the top corner of López Vallejo's net with a free kick from outside of the area. It knocked the locals off their stride, and for the rest of the first half Víctor's men could make no progress into the Málaga half.

The manager decided to make changes after the break, bringing on his two young strikers Guayre and then Aranda. The latter brought a good save out of Contreras, and with the game in injury time Quique Alvarez headed wide with the goal at his mercy. But Málaga survived, and are now well on the way to a first ever appearance in the UEFA cup.