Jornada 2: Alaves vs Malaga
Malaga travelled to the far north of Spain, involving an overnight stay in Madrid on the journey north to Vittoria, near the French border, to play Alaves in their first away game of the season.
In front of 6,278 spectators and a live Canal+ TV audience, the game was delayed for a minute's silence in honour of Sevilla player, 22 years old Antonio Puerta, who died on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack during Sevilla's opening game last weekend against Getafe.
Manager Muniz unsurprisingly chose the exact same squad and team after last week's opener at home, in the 3-0 win against Salamanca.
Teams:
Alavés (4-2-3-1): Bernardo; Edu Alonso, Pablo Casar, Mateo and Tarantino; Astudillo, Mehdi Lacen; Samuel Bayón and José María Mena, (Wellington Paulista, m. 59) and Toni Moral; David Aganzo.
Málaga (4-1-3-2): Goitia; Jesús Gámez, Helder Rosario, Weligton and Rossato; Paulo Jorge, Antonio Hidalgo, Carpintero, Calleja, Salva and Baha.
The early play was a midfield battle with no team able to dominate proceedings, although Alaves seemed to be camped in Malaga's half without threatening the visitor's goal.
The first shot on target in the game came from Antonio Hidalgo, when the ball came to him after a corner in 27', but it went straight into the arms of Bernardo in the Alaves goal.
Then in 30', Alaves went close when Jose Maria Mena got his head to a corner at the other end and with Goitia beaten, watched the ball come off the far post.
Alaves intensified their territorial dominion, with very physical soccer, as Malaga's line-up, with Carpintero playing very deep just in front of the back four, meant that Hidalgo was alone in the centre of midfield.
However, in 33' Salva had a great opportunity to open the scoring, turning onto a pass at the edge of the box with just the goalkeeper to beat, but his left foot shot went just wide of the post.
Mena continued to be the home side's main threat and in 44', required Malaga keeper Goitia to make a great point blank reaction save.
Half time Alaves 0 Malaga 0
After the interval, the game continued in much the same vein with Alaves pressing and Malaga on the back foot. For Malaga, Salva remained the target for any forward pass and he received some rough treatment from the Alaves defenders.
In 50', Samuel Bayón sent in a great shot from outside the area after splendid play from Toni Moral and again Goitia kept his side in the game with a good save.
Malaga continued in second half with the same tactical scheme of the first half, depending on strong defence to try to surprise Alaves in a counterattack.
Malaga's formation relies on the two wingers to create the space and deliver crosses to the two strikers. However, both Paulo Jorge and Calleja were ineffective, even though they did try swapping wings on several occasions. So it was no surprise that both were substituted, Paulo Jorge by Cheli in 55' and Calleja by Eliseu Pereira in 69'. In fact it wasn't until Eliseu came on and starting running at the Alaves defence down the left wing that Malaga came to life, in what was looking to be a stalemate 0-0 draw.
Before he came on, Iñaki Goitia in Malaga's goal was forced to make another fine save in 68' pushing the ball over the crossbar from a header by Alaves defender Pablo.
Alaves almost scored a cheeky goal, when Bernardo booted a long ball from his penalty area for Brazilian striker Wellington Paulista to run onto in 75'. He was one on one with Goitia who rushed off his line and indeed out of his penalty area to try and deny the Brazilian. Paulista tried to lift the ball over the goalkeeper's head but his shot went wide.
The following minute, Salva limped off to be replaced by Roberto Peragon, making his debut for Malaga.
In 78' after another excellent run down the left by Eliseu Pereira, who sent in a measured cross which was met by a well placed header from Roberto Peragon, which flashed into the net with his first touch of the ball.
Alaves 0 Malaga 1
The goal seemed to inspire Malaga who should have made it 0-2 when Eliseu, completely alone, shot over the crossbar in 81'.
At the other end, Alaves forward David Aganzo had the chance to tie the score in 85', but shot past the near post, by few centimetres.
Finally, Cheli had a great chance to increase Malaga's lead in 87' when he received a cross from Eliseu, but with the goal wide open he shot over from 8 yards.
So, Malaga took three golden points in their first away game of the season, which puts the team from the Costa del Sol at the top of the league, with two games played. Only 40 more to go!
Downside: in a very physical game, the referee booked the following:
Alaves: Pablo Casar (58'), Wellington Paulista (72'), David Aganzo (74'), physio Iñaki 'Tasio' Fernández de Monje (73') and Sergio Rodríguez (80');
Málaga: Weligton (19'), Javi Calleja (42'), Cheli (72'), Antonio Hidalgo (79') and Eliseu (90+3').