Almería: Esteban; Rafita, Trujillo, Torsiglieri, Dubarbier; Verza (Corona 87’), Azeez; Suso (Helder Barbosa 56‘), Soriano (Rodri 70’), Aleix Vidal; Jonathan Zongo. 4-2-3-1.
Málaga: Willy Caballero; Jesús Gámez, Sergio Sánchez, Angeleri, Antunes; Camacho, Tissone (Pablo Pérez 78’); Samuel (Iakovenko 78’), Duda, Amrabat; Santa Cruz (El Hamdaoui 83’). 4-2-3-1.
Goals: None.
Yellow cards: Soriano 29‘, Antunes 32‘, Angeleri 34‘, Verza 36’, Jesús Gámez 45’, Iakovenko 84’, Pablo Pérez 86’.
Málaga stay just a place above the bottom three, and Almería are just a point ahead of them after the two sides cancelled each other out in a dull 0-0 draw on Saturday evening. Languishing in the lower reaches of the table, neither team could afford to lose against a direct rival in the fight to avoid the drop, and chances were few and far between. The closest either side got to scoring was when Willy Caballero had to turn a header from Trujillo for a corner following a long free kick on the quarter hour mark, and the visiting keeper also had to save a long shot by Aleix Vidal shortly before the break. Duda and Camacho fired shots wide at the other end, but after that they hardly got near Esteban’s goal. Francisco brought on Rodri for the last twenty minutes, his first appearance after a three month injury lay-off, but even he couldn’t find the net, his only shot going well wide. Trujillo put another chance wide in the dying minutes, but this one was always going to end without goals.