Match Reports

Great anticipation for Sunday night's match, which some of may have seen "live" either on Sky Sports 1 or Canal+ here in Spain. Malaga were semi-euphoric after their previous weekend's 1-4 away win at Mallorca, whereas Atletico Madrid had not won in La Liga since February and this early in the season were languishing in one of the three drop zone places in the table.
In the close season, striker Salva left them to join Malaga and was replaced by the Serbian, Kezman, signed from Chelsea after a bust up with Jose Mourino. Also signed in the close season was the Bulgarian, Petrov, who is known in his home country as the "new Stoitchkov". But the biggest change for Atletico Madrid for the new season is their new manager, Carlos Bianchi. The Argentinean has come to Spain with an impressive track record from his home country - 3 Intercontinental Cups, 4 Liberty Cups and 7 Argentinean League titles, among others.
So it is an understatement to say that Atletico were underperforming with the talent on hand, already boasting Argentinean goalkeeper, Leo Franco, Maxi Rodriguez, Frenchman Pierre Luccin, Perea and the sensational Spanish international striker, Fernando Torres and a win was a "must have" for them against Malaga.
Atletico Madrid (4-1-3-2): Leo Franco; Velasco, Pablo, Perea and Antonio Lopez; Luccin; Maxi, Gabi and Petrov; Kezman and Fernando Torres.
Antonio Tapia, on the other hand, has had difficulty in naming a settled line-up this year, either through lack of form in some players, injuries, suspensions and ongoing contract debates. Last week Tapia played 4-4-2 in the win against Mallorca, not out of choice but because he was limited by the players available. Only Arnau, Fernando Sanz, Cesar, Nacho and Gerardo have featured in all previous five starting line-ups so far. This week he was still unable to call up Romero, who is very badly missed in front of the back four, and big Uruguayan striker Morales picked up a injury in training. Biggest omission this week, though, was Duda. The little Portuguese left winger and playmaker, who scored twice last week, was left out again from the squad as he continues to refuse to accept Malaga's contract offers or a transfer to another club before his existing contract expires in June 2006. So the concept, "don't change a winning team", was not available and a strange looking line-up was announced to the crowd (which was sold out four days before the kick-off, despite being live on TV):
Malaga (4-2-3-1): Arnau; Alexis, Cesar, Fernando Sanz and Valcarce; Gerardo and Anderson; Edgar, Juan Rodriguez and Nacho; Salva.

Although it's a 21:00h kick-off in October, the temperature was 21C and there was no appreciable wind. Malaga lost the toss and were asked to kick off towards the Fondo end (where we sit). In the opening two minutes, Gerardo picked up the ball in the centre circle and seeing that Leo Franco was on the edge of his penalty box, tried an audacious lob from 40 yards. But the ball didn't come down enough and went sailing over.
In the opening 10 minutes the pattern of play started to become obvious. Malaga were pressing forward, as you might expect the home team to do, whereas Atletico were looking to the pace of their powerful front two, Kezman and Torres, to catch out Malaga with the Route One over the top counter attack.
In 10' Fernando Torres did latch on to one such through ball and went direct towards the Malaga goal. This is a fearsome sight for the opposing fans as his touch is so good and his pace breathtaking. However on this occasion, Cesar stuck out a foot to cleanly take the ball whilst Fernando Torres ran on without the ball. This received a great cheer from the home crowd, both out of relief but also in a effort to wind up the young superstar, who was sent-off in the corresponding match last season.
Malaga did have a couple of freekicks in promising positions after their neat passing play was interrupted by uncompromising tackles from the Atletico back four, but the resulting attempts on goal were poor.
Then Salva, Juan Rodriguez and Edgar were all given marginal offside decisions within seconds of each other when in good scoring positions.
In 17' we caught the first glimpse of the pace and power of Kezman as he latched onto a seemingly safe passback from Fernando Sanz to his keeper. Kezman appeared out of nowhere to intercept the pass and race one-on-one with Arnau, but the Malaga keeper is in fine form just now and rushed out to avert the danger.
The following minute, Alexis attempted a long throw deep into the Atletico half. Fernando Torres intercepted the pass and set off on a long run into Malaga's half. Instead of electing to shoot he tried to find Kezman who had raced into the box with him, but Anderson's long legs got in the way of the pass and he was able to make the clearance.
In the 26th minute, Nacho, who was failing to make an impression down the left wing, at last managed to get past the full back to send a powerful drive towards the penalty spot to an onrushing Juan Rodriguez. The burly forward was brought down in a challenge by Pablo, but the referee did not award the penalty.
Luccin was first to be booked after 34' for showing his studs in a high tackle against Juan Rodriguez, who was continuing to trouble the Atletico defence.
The standside linesman continued to annoy and frustrate the Malaga frontmen as again and again marginal offside decisions spoilt some good leading up play. Perhaps the Malaga midfielders could have been guilty of not releasing the ball quickly enough to the forwards, but there were so many offsides in this period that it was becoming a joke.
In 39' Gerardo, given the freekick duties in Duda's absence, at last had some success with a dead ball and found the lanky Brazilian Anderson in space in the box but his free header went just over.
It was all Malaga at this point and Petrov was next to be booked in 41' for dissent, after having a so far frustrating match out on Atletico's left wing.
Then in 43', Atletico's third booking came when centre back Pablo brought down Juan Rodriguez from the back.
The resultant free kick bounced off the wall and was gathered quickly by Leo Franco who launched it straight down the middle for Fernando Torres to chase. The speedy striker raced into the box, again one-on-one with Arnau, but the goalkeeper brought off an excellent save to deny the Atletico a lead they scarcely deserved.
Half time Malaga 0 Atletico 0
Just after kick off and Gerardo becomes the first Malaga player to be booked for pushing Fernando Torres off the ball.
In 50' Malaga made their first substitution, by replacing Alexis with Hidlago. Gerardo dropped back to his more accustomed right back position, with Hidalgo slotting in midfield alongside Anderson, with Juan Rodriguez pushing up to join Salva in a more attacking 4-4-2 formation, as Malaga set out their stall to win the game.
The game's pace has picked up considerably since these changes as Malaga go in search of an opening goal.
In 57' Nacho is brought down in full flight down the left and is booked for complaining that he didn't get a free kick.
In 58' Salva goes close but heads just over from a clever Nacho cross.
The first attack of the half from Atletico produces a great save from Arnau as he somehow gets to the ball from a powerful header from Gabi from a Lopez freekick.
Atletico enjoy their best spell of the game with Arnau having to produce another fine save in 60', this time from Kezman after he had beaten Fernando Sanz all ends up for pace.
In 62' Arnau makes another save from Luccin's pot shot from deep midfield.
In 64' Petrov finally gets past Gerardo and manages to swing a ball into box, looking for the onrushing Fernando Torres. Cesar has it covered and moves in between the ball and player to intercept the cross, but the young striker goes down and the referee awards the penalty!
Now live at the game, it did not look like a penalty to me and most of the capacity crowd and all eleven Malaga players agreed with me. They gathered round the referee to protest and Anderson was booked for dissent. On the highlights later on TV, all fifteen camera angles and constant replays showed that Fernando Torres ran into the back of the towering centre back, who was looking towards the ball and Petrov and, crucially, that it was no penalty. It also showed the young striker smirking widely at his good fortune in hoodwinking the referee. The crowd behind the goal saw this too and went wild raising the decibel level in the stadium quite a few notches (bearing in mind it is a logarithmic scale). There was some shenanigans before Fernando Torres could take the kick as the referee held up the penalty kick until the Malaga players were out of the "D". But it was all to no avail as the big striker stroked the ball past Arnau to put the Red and Whites ahead.
Fernando Torres ran behind the goal to celebrate with his tongue out and his hands behind his ears deliberately taunting the home support and the shot was captured beautifully in a photograph published yesterday in a national newspaper here in Spain. No booking was forthcoming from the referee for this offence, so the crowd took the matter into their own hands and showered the player with plastic coke bottles as he ran towards the corner flag chased by his fellow players. There was a short delay as the missiles were removed from the pitch and announced boomed out over the pa system and on the giant scoreboards that the club is fined for such demonstrations.
Malaga 0 Atletico 1
Directly after the goal, Nacho was replaced by Paco Estaban to take over the wide left slot and three minutes later, Manu was brought on to replace the largely invisible Edgar out wide on the right.
Paco Estaban's first involvement was to be fouled by Velasco as he attempted to collect a pass from Hidalgo, which resulted in a booking for the Atletico right back.
Malaga are pushing up now and adjusting to the changes, trying to get back into game they had largely controlled up to the penalty. However, the threat from Fernando Torres and Kezman had not gone away and it was the latter who raced onto another long ball out of defence, in 75 minutes, out wide on the right. He seemed to drift past three defenders without suffering a challenge before releasing a right foot shot which went across Arnau and into the top left corner of the net.
Malaga 0 Atletico 2
This was indeed the killer blow for the game and everybody seemed to sense it, even though there were still 15 minutes left. Kezman was substituted right after scoring and Petrov moved up front to partner Fernando Torres.
Malaga look shell shocked and devoid of ideas now as Atletico sense it is their day and go looking for more goals. It's Petrov who is showing now for Atletico in his new forward position and he too shows he is a pacy player as he runs on more long balls out of the Atletico defence and only a succession of fine saves from Arnau denies the Bulgarian the chance to have his name on the scoresheet.
Full time Malaga 0 Atletico 2

It is a full three weeks before Malaga return to La Rosaleda. Next weekend is free due the World Cup qualifiers. The following weekend, Malaga face the difficult trip to Valencia, then it's back home for the first of the season's local Andalucian derbies, this time against the strongest of them, Real Betis. Never fear, your Malaga CF Correspondent will be there.
Hasta luego!