Match Reports

Well after the two Sevilla sides, Sevilla/Real Betis, the Sevilla/Malaga fixture is the biggest local derby in Andalusia. I was reading just the other day that in terms of land mass, Andalucia is bigger than Portugal, so it was not surprising that there were all sorts of stories circulating in the local newspapers in the build-up to Sunday's game. One I read concerned the outstanding payment Malaga had to pay Atletico Fenix, the Uruguayan former club of that country's international striker, Dario Silva. Malaga maintain that there is no outstanding debt, but the Malaga Director General, Antonio Mendoza, did wonder why this story had emerged during the week before the Sevilla/Malaga match, when it concerned a player who left Malaga a little acrimoniously at the end of last season to join.......Sevilla! Of course, Dario Silva's replacement at Malaga is Salva, La Liga's top scorer, who has outperformed anything that his predecessor did and has easily wiped the Malaga fan's memories of the Uruguayan with his 16 goals so far.
Unfortunately, your Malaga CF Correspondent did not make the trip to Sevilla yesterday, as this Wednesday we hope to get the keys to our new house. However, I was able to catch a glimpse of the highlights on television and I know that you Malaga supporters around the globe are interested to know how the White and Blues got on.
Again as fate would have it, Sevilla started the game on the same points total as Malaga, so a victory for either team would open up a three point gap between them. In Andalucia, if one of the teams can't win the league, then the season is not a complete failure if they are to finish above their closest rivals. As you know in Spanish football, home wins are expected, away wins are rare apart from the top clubs, and Malaga did beat Sevilla at home earlier in the season.
First of all Manager Juande Ramos, as ever, made some changes to the team for the visit to Sevilla. Our Uruguayan anchor man, Romero, returned after being out for several weeks in place of his able deputy, the Croation Leko, the Argentine Insua was preferred to Luque on the left wing, as regular Duda is still suspended after being sent off two weeks ago, and Ramos went for two up front with Canabal partnering Salva, which meant that Gerardo dropped to the bench as the Portuguese Edgar took up his position on the right wing. Team (4, 4, 2) Arnau, Josemi, Litos, Fernando Sanz, Valcarce, Edgar, Michel Angel, Romero, Insua, Canabal and Salva.
We went out for a meal last night, unable to watch the game live on television as it was infuriatingly on a Spanish Pay for View channel. However, we are walking past this bar, which had a huge television in the corner, and there is a football match on. I glanced up and recognised the all-white of Sevilla against the unique black and gold away strip of Malaga so I popped my head in to see what the score was. Well just at that minute, in the 78th minute of the match to be exact, well into the second half, with the score level on 0-0, Insua went rushing into the box down the left hand side, with both Canabal and Salva running into more central positions in the box. The nasty big defender came along and made a rough sliding tackle which took the ball away from Insua, but also took Insua's legs and down he went....penalty! Up steps, who else but, Salva and he powerfully crashed the spot kick past the hapless goalie to make the final score Sevilla 0 Malaga 1.
Salva's tally for the season has now increased to 17, just 5 behind Ronaldo's 22, but the big Brazilian is out for a few weeks and our man has an opportunity to catch up and overtake the goofy one.
A famous victory then and one which pushes Malaga into 8th spot, just three points off the European placings that the top six spots guarantee. Next week, Malaga are at home to struggling Albecete, who won promotion from the Second Division last year and have been finding it difficult in their first season with the big boys, lurking around the fringes of the three relegation slots all season. What will happen? I will let you know as your Malaga CF Correspondent will be there.