Espanyol 2 - 2 Malaga: Malaga battle back from two goals down to salvage point at Espanyol
Posted Saturday, August 27, 2016 by PA
Malaga launched a stunning comeback to claim a 2-2 draw away to Espanyol on Friday night.
A goal in either half from Gerard Moreno appeared to have earned the Catalans their first points of the campaign after their incredible 6-4 defeat to Sevilla in their LaLiga opener, but Malaga halved the deficit in the 67th minute with a brave header from on-loan Real Madrid defender Diego Llorente.
Juande Ramos' men piled on late pressure and were rewarded as Brazilian substitute Charles applied a calm finish to a route one attack in the last minute of normal time.
Gerard whistled an effort just wide of the right-hand post with a quarter of an hour gone, but made no mistake in the 28th minute with a rising shot to round off an impressive Espanyol move, giving Carlos Kameni in the Malaga goal absolutely no chance.
Juanpi, the scorer of Malaga's goal in their opening-night draw at home to Osasuna, fired one off target with five minutes of the first half remaining.
Espanyol doubled their lead after an hour's play. Pablo Piatti swung in a free-kick from the right and Gerard got ahead of marker Llorente to head past Kameni at his near post.
Malaga almost gifted their hosts a third after 65 minutes when Bakary Kone's weak header presented a chance to Hernan Perez but he shot wide after nudging the ball to the side of Kameni.
Seconds later the visitors were back in it when Espanyol goalkeeper Roberto Jimenez's attempt to punch clear a free-kick struck Llorente on the head and bounced in, with the dazed defender accepting the applause of his team-mates.
Roberto had to be alert to push wide a powerful low strike towards his near post from Charles after Sandro Ramirez had played him in with five minutes to go.
The visitors ended the game well on top and Charles made no mistake deep into the final minute of normal time after a free-kick from the Malaga half was flicked on into his path and his deft finish was beyond the reach of Roberto.
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