Match Reports

A busy day for me, Wednesday 22 September, with Helen and I flying in from Glasgow in the morning after a trip to Scotland to attend a wedding. Scotland was dark, cold and very wet, but it was not too long before we got home and got back into tee shirt, shorts and sandals. Unfortunately Helen has caught a cold from her stay in Scotland, but hopefully the sunshine and dry weather will help her recovery.
It was a 9pm kick-off against the La Liga newcomers, Numancia, promoted from La Segunda as runners-up to Levante last year. They have got off to a reasonable start and before today's game, after three matches, were above Malaga in the table on goal difference. The temperature was a balmy 26C and the stadium, with its new stand now open and allowing the support to be all around the ground, had a different, more intense atmosphere. Numancia are a team without recognisable stars, coming from a smallish town in the north of Spain. Their main threat is from their Korean international, Lee Chun Soo, signed at the last minute from Real Sociedad, before the season started, who plays wide left in a four man attack.
Malaga's manager, Manzano, has a problem on the right wing and cannot decide between Edgar, Manu and Gerardo for the position, having tried each one in each of the previous three games. On Sunday past, away to Real Mallorca, it was Edgar's turn, and he made his point by scoring (along with Wanchope's first goal for Malaga) in an excellent morale boosting 2-1 away win. This week is three games in a row, as Malaga are away to high flying Espanyol next Sunday, but maximum points from these three games would give the team the confidence all sides need early on in the season.
For the Numancia game, it was both Gerardo (at right back in place of Alexis, to combat the pace of Soo) and Edgar in the line-up in a 4-3-2-1 system, with Edgar and Amoroso in advanced positions ahead of Duda, Leko (the Croatian provides more attacking options than Romero) and Michel Angel, behind the lanky Costa Rican Wanchope (El Chope has recently been recalled to the international scene, after his impressive start to the season).
Malaga: Calatayud, Gerardo, Juanito, Fernando Sanz, Valcarce, Michel Angel, Leko, Duda, Edgar, Amoroso and Wanchope.
Numancia: (4-2-2-1-1): Nunez, Velasco, Otxoa, Molina, Graff, Palacio, Ros, Kiassos, Soo, Tevenet and Pineda.

People were still streaming in to the ground, when, after only three minutes, Malaga got off to a sensational start. Duda took a corner from the left after Chope forced a fine save from Nunez. The ball was cleared only to MICHEL ANGEL, lurking just outside the box, who hit the ball sweetly on the volley and it swerved past the box full of players just inside the post. What a goal! 1-0
We were still talking about Michel Angel's rare goal, when five minutes later, Duda passed from the left to WANCHOPE, who with his back to goal, controlled the ball magnificently to swivel round and hammer home from 20 yards. 2-0
Three minutes later, Malaga's dominance continued and Michel Angel came close to repeating his earlier effort from another Duda corner, but this time it went wide.
It was 18 minutes on the clock before Numancia showed up front and Pineda and Soo linked well but it came to nothing. Two minutes later, Malaga forced another corner, this time on the right, after a typically string run from Edgar. Duda took the inswinging corner, which found AMOROSO at the far post for the Brazilian to score his first goal for his new club. 3-0
You get a bit silly when your team goes up 3-0 after only twenty minutes, dreaming of cricket scores, but Numancia did not give up and from a well worked free kick in 28 minutes, just outside the box, Otxoa was clean through but shot straight at Calatayud.
The game went into a series of needless fouls in midfield as Numancia tried to stem the attacking play from Malaga, but the referee did not resort to the book, until the 41st minute, when Graff was deemed to be last man and sent off for cynically bringing down Amoroso as he started to bear down on the goalkeeper.
10 man Numancia did not give up and came closest to scoring before half-time when Ros ran onto a loose ball after Duda lost possession on the left wing on the centre line, but although Calatayud was beaten, his powerful drive came off the far post.
Half-time 3-0
The second half was a bit of an anticlimax after the sensational first half. Numancia down to 10 men predictably put all behind the ball in damage limitation, hoping to catch Malaga on the break with the pace of Pineda and Soo. Although Malaga played some nice football, with some neat passing and displays of skill, the cutting edge had gone with Chope shooting wide and Gerardo blasting well over on three occasions. In 63 minutes Chope was substituted to great cheers from the home support - his workrate and threat up front has already made him a fan's favourite - and Manu came on. This required a reshuffle of the team to a 4-4-2 formation with Edgar and Amoroso becoming a two pronged strike force, as Manzano tried to find more goals.
In 65 minutes, Amoroso was clean through in the box and was cynically brought down in a sandwich between the two giant centre backs, Oxtoa and Molina. A certain penalty, but the referee waved play on.
Then two minutes later, Tevenet plays the ball off Gerardo to gain a rare corner for Numancia. From the resultant corner kick, the ball bounced around the Malaga goalmouth like bagatelle, with the defenders unable to clear the ball from the area. OXTOA was able to stick out a foot to stab home a consolation goal. 3-1
Two minutes later Leko was booked for a foul on Oxtoa and while play was stopped Luque came on for Duda. Manu was next in the book for a foul against Palacio on the centre line.
On 80 minutes, Swiss striker Giejo (pronounced Geecho, ch as in loch) came on for the tiring Edgar.
Fernando Sanz became the third Malaga player in the book for use of his elbow against Soo in the centre circle.
The game was dying as we headed for full-time when LUQUE burst through the centre of the defence on a superb solo run and from 12 yards blasted the ball into the top corner to make it 4-1. Seconds later Giejo was put through by Michel Angel and he was one on one with the keeper but his firm shot went just wide the far post.
Full-time Malaga 4 Numancia 1

Your Malaga CF Correspondent