Málaga 0 - Espanyol 0

Málaga: Contreras; Roteta, Bravo, Larrainzar, Valcarce; Ruano (Agostinho 46'), De los Santos, Movilla, Rufete (Quaye 85'); Zárate (Edgar 65'), Dely Valdés. 4-4-2.
Espanyol: Mora; Cristóbal, Soldevilla, Nando, Toledo; Navas, Galca, Sergio, Iván Díaz (Arteaga 46'); Martín Posse (Velamazán 75'), Tamudo (Serrano 80'). 4-4-2.

Team changes: Málaga: Rufete for Darío Silva / Espanyol: Nando, Toledo, Tamudo for Pochettino, Roger, Oscar.

Goals: None.

Espanyol kept up their recent revival with their fourth match in a row without defeat after holding Málaga to a dull goal-less draw. Their objective is to win at home and draw away, known as the 'media inglesa' in Spain (the English average), and they came to the South of Spain looking for a point. With Pochettino on international duty with Argentina, Nando returned to their defence together with Toledo, who replaced the injured Roger. Tamudo returned up front after a one match suspension. Málaga's manager Joaquín Peiró, in charge for game number 100, brought back Spanish international Rufete after a fortnight long injury, with Zárate keeping his place in attack after a good performance last week.

The pitch at the Rosaleda stadium has been reseeded recently, but it was still in bad conditions, impeding the little play there was. If anything Espanyol were the better of two poor sides, with Málaga only shooting on target once in the first half, from Rufete, and doing even worse in the second. With Navas substituting well for the not fully fit Velamazán, the visitors came close to scoring two or three times in the second half, the best chance falling to Tamudo ten minutes from time that Contreras just got a hand to. Peiró brought on Edgar in the second half, and five minutes from time he finally gave Awule Quaye an appearance, the Ghanaian coming on for the first time since signing last winter.

Málaga's goal famine continues, and they drop to thirteenth after failing to score for the second game in a row. Espanyol's crisis appears to be over, and they are a place above their opponents with the same number of points. Their keeper Mora moves up to second in the Zamora table, having only let in eight goals in ten games.