Malaga scored three first half goals, thanks to Juanpi, Christian Atsu and Charles, on their way to an easy 3-0 win over a struggling Getafe side at the Rosaleda.
Roberto Rosales, in just the seventh minute, went down in a heap early in the match after Pedro Leon committed a nasty foul and play had to be stopped for a couple of minutes but luckily, the defender was able to continue to play the rest of the match.
Malaga scores quickly
There was a breakthrough shortly after play resumed as the home side scored first, in one of the few chances created by either club. Juanpi did superbly to squeeze his way past two Getafe defenders and slid the ball with his left foot behind the diving goalkeeper.
Egor Filipenko, off the corner in the 14th minute, stuck his right foot out and missed the target at the near post. Nineteen minutes into the affair and Leon had Getafe’s first decent look at goal, following a free kick, but his effort bounced wide of the target.
Malaga doubled their lead in the 23rd minute through loan Chelsea loanee Atsu after Getafe’s defense broke down. He was fed a square pass by …. Before running in behind and slotting his shot into the bottom right corner of the goal.
Getafe’s Moises Gomez shot low and hard at the near post but Carlos Kameni was alert enough to dive to his right to stop the shot and cover up the rebound in the 27th minute.
There was a third goal scored in the opening stanza of this match which really settled the occasion. The ball got pushed out wide and Duje Cop sent in a wonderful cross back towards the middle of the area and Charles beat a defender to get on the end of the delivery and powered it a helpless goalkeeper.
Second half filled with half-chances
Getafe had a half chance in the opening ten minutes of the second half when Damián Suárez floated a ball into the middle of the yard box, but Kameni was quick off his line as it split two visiting forwards and could have caused big trouble. Charles could have had Malaga’s fourth goal of the match, a couple of minutes before the hour mark, and completed his brace as he found space to shoot inside the box but the angle was covered by the visiting shot stopper at the near post.
Arthur Boka was involved in the action with 19 minutes remaining, when he sent a wonderful ball into the eighteen yard box that was met by the diving head of Cop but it sailed way right of the target. In the last minute of normal time, Cop nearly rounded Getafe’s goalkeeper, but he was quick off of his line and ended whatever threat could have come afterwards.
The hosts were expected to win this match with a bit of ease as they had more about them in just about every facet of the pitch and the result showed just that, winning the three points and climbing up into the top half of the table.