The atmosphere inside La Rosaleda crackles like crossed wires.
Joaquín gives and goes. Manuel Iturra controls and dinks the deftest of through balls back for the one-two on the edge of the box. Francesco Acerbi, realising he’s been caught out, spins and flings a leg out on his way down in an act of desperation rather than expectation. Joaquín collects in behind and rifles it to Marco Ameila’s near post. The ball clunks satisfyingly off the woodwork on the way in, and some 30,000 fans explode in the way that only Spanish football fans can. The sound is not ‘sí’ but a collective intake of breath followed by a rising ‘ooooooOOOOAAAHHHHH’. You know the one.
The debris from a near ankle-deep layer of discarded sunflower seed shells fly like confetti as limbs in the stands follow on this ludicrously humid October night on the Costa del Sol in 2012.
Málaga have just gone 1–0 up against AC Milan in the Champions League. They will see out the rest of the second half and win the game against the competition’s second-most successful side. Top of Group C after three matches. No goals conceded. European royalty vanquished.
UEFA’s official match report reads, “Málaga don’t wake up from their dream”. And why would they want to?
The year is 2012/13. Cult icons meet Football Manager wonderkids for perhaps the most Barclays-looking team ever assembled outside the Premier League. You’ve got Joaquín, Saviola, Demichelis, Baptista, Toulalan, and, of course, Isco. Manuel Pellegrini stalks the dugout.
A couple of years earlier, this unassuming also-ran of a club was in financial peril. Now, they are bulldozing their way to the Champions League knockouts. And it’s all thanks to Qatari money…
Just ignore the baggage that comes with that sentence for now. Ignore the worrying player sales, reports of unpaid wages and boardroom unease. No one wants to wake up yet. Enjoy the ride.
Viva Málaga, viva la Champions.
Hard cut to October 2024: Another sticky midweek night, this time a little further down the coast.
David Larrubia lashes home a half-volley on the spin deep into extra time. However, there is no ‘ooooooOOOOAAAHHHHH’ from the crowd this time. It is but a consolation goal as Málaga are unceremoniously dumped out of the Copa del Rey first round away at semi-pro fourth-tier neighbours CD Estepona.
Twelve years is a long old time in football, and that single season in the Champions League feels like forever ago. A lot has happened since. Most of it bad.
A dismal 3–2 defeat in front of 3,000 people is not the nadir. It’s just another Thursday. The fans have become numb to these types of results across a slow and infuriating decade following the end of a brief moment when the light shone on the club from Europe’s sunniest city.
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