Málagavs
VillarrealMálaga started the better team and Carlos Dotor put them ahead inside 12 minutes, finishing off a Juan Antonio Cruz assist to send La Rosaleda's 28,505 into full voice. It didn't last. By halftime, Villarreal had turned this thing completely around, and the second half was little more than damage limitation for a home side that couldn't get out of its own half.
Dotor's goal was clean and well-taken, but Málaga never really built on it. Their shape held for a while, but Villarreal — who came in with a rough run of form behind them — controlled the ball at 62.9% possession and kept pushing until the game broke open.
The Half That Decided It
The equalizer came on 40 minutes. Alberto Moleiro collected a pass from Ilias Akhomach and leveled it, and just two minutes into stoppage time Pape Gueye made it 2-1 with an Ayoze Pérez assist. That sequence — two goals in the final few minutes before the break — was brutal for Málaga. Going into halftime down a goal they had been leading not long before, against a side that had just found its rhythm? Qué golpe tan duro.
Akhomach picked up a yellow card on 42 minutes, sandwiched between his assist and the halftime whistle. José Salinas had already been booked for Málaga on 34 minutes, and the home side's discipline only got worse from there: David Larrubia (68'), Einar Galilea (70'), Ramón Enríquez (79'), and goalkeeper Alfonso Herrero (85') were all cautioned. Four yellow cards in the final 22 minutes tells you everything about how the second half felt for Málaga — scrambling, frustrated, and running out of ideas.
Gueye Closes It Out
With the game already settled, Pape Gueye added his second on 86 minutes from the penalty spot. No assist credited, no drama — just a composed finish to make the scoreline reflect the actual gap between the two sides. Villarreal had 16 shots to Málaga's five, with seven on target against one. The home goalkeeper made three saves; Villarreal's keeper made none.
Our pre-match read made Villarreal the favorite at 46%, and the match played out exactly that way — Málaga's brief lead was the only real deviation from the script.
For Villarreal, this is the kind of win that can steady a wobbling ship. They had lost four straight coming in, and grinding out a road result — even after going behind — shows something. The manner of it, flipping the game before halftime and then controlling the second half, will feel more meaningful than just picking up three points.
Málaga, meanwhile, are in a tough spot. Their form reads LDDLD, they were outpassed nearly two-to-one on the night, and the yellow card parade in the closing stages suggests a group that's running on fumes. The question now is whether this squad has the depth to stabilize, or whether results like this one start to compound.
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