Málaga 2 - Las Palmas 1

Málaga: Rafa; Rojas, Bravo, Larrainzar, Iznata (Agostinho 46'); Rufete, Movilla (Sandro 46'), De los Santos, Zárate (Canabal 80'); Darío Silva, Dely Valdés. 4-4-2.
Las Palmas: Cicovic; Edu Alonso, Alvaro, Schurrer, Paqui (Jaime Molina 85'), Jarni; Angel (Moreno 75'), Ramón, Josico; Guayre (Rubén 90'), Turdó. 5-3-2.

Team changes: Málaga: Rafa, Rufete, Darío Silva for Contreras, Roteta, Canabal / Las Palmas: Cicovic, Schurrer, Angel, Ramón, Turdó for Nacho González, Olías, Jorge, Samways, Oulare.

Goals:
0-1. 16. Jarni. Free kick from right wing which slipped past Rafa.
1-1. 71. Dely Valdés. From close to goal after passing move with Zárate.
2-1. 93. Larrainzar. Header from close up after Agostinho corner from left.

Las Palmas would be justified in claiming they were hard done by in this game which they lost in injury time. Holding a one goal lead at half time, they saw a Schurrer header hit the woodwork and two efforts by Guayre cleared off the line by Bravo as they bore down on the Málaga goal in the second half. But then a quick passing move by Darío Silva, Zárate and Dely Valdés twenty minutes from full time ended with the Panamanian striker's eleventh league goal of the season, and as the game was slipping in to injury time Larrainzar came from behind to head Agostinho's corner down past the Las Palmas keeper for the winner. It was the first time that the South coast team had come from behind to win this season, and ended a run of five games in which they had only picked up a single point.

Sergio Kresic had had to cobble together a makeshift side for this match, with three first choice players, Nacho González, Samways and Jorge, all suspended and five others out injured. Cicovic was eventually given the nod in goal, which only left two places for non-EU players, which were occupied by Alvaro and Jarni. Turdó came in to the starting line up for the first time since joining the club this winter. Joaquín Peiró left Musampa out of his squad after he was involved in an incident outside a nightclub during the week, and with Roteta and Contreras both suspended Bravo and Rafa came in to the team. Rafa's appearance in goal was the subject of much interest during the week, as his last full appearance ended in disaster when he dropped the ball into his own net, blinded by the sun glaring off the white seats at the end of the stadium. Plans to paint the seats blue had still not been put into action, although Rafa declined to wear a cap as he said it would not make much difference.

Whether it would or not is open to debate but whatever the case history repeated itself again, this time from the right hand side, as Jarni's free kick from out on the wing bounced past the unfortunate keeper and in to the net. Luckily for Rafa his team came back this time to win, and Rafa made a couple of good saves, particularly from Guayre in the second half. Málaga's win takes them back up to the safety of mid-table, where they draw level with Las Palmas on 31 points. Before the match, the Málaga players made a nice gesture to their team mate Valcarce, out for the rest of the season with a broken cruciate knee ligament, showing off t-shirts with a single letter on each which together read 'animo Vicente'. It took them a long time to get it right though but they got there in the end. Just like this match.