If these rivals met a little more than a month ago, it would be a derby of the bottom of the table, however, Eibar found strength and good form and they had a great series of seven matches without defeat, which was only interrupted in the last round, so they are now in the top of the table, while Malaga, after a short successful success, has fallen again in the crisis and now they have four defeats in a row, which is why they are in the relegation zone. In the first part of the season, Eibar has defeated Malaga with 1-0 as guest.
Eibar is in a safe zone, or rather, this team now has the chance to even fight for European positions, although it does not mean much to them, and most importantly, they are far from the relegation zone. Not so long ago they were very close, especially after a series of seven games without a win, and then they simply woke up and started playing great, followed by a series of seven championship matches without defeat, out of which six wins, and this led them to the top part of the table.
That home defeat by Atletico in the last round has not affected their ranking, though the series was interrupted. They have played a very good match against Athletic and were defeated with a minimum of 1-0. It is interesting that they have received one goal in every game they won in the series. They have brought two reinforcements, Diop and Orellana, but for now they have no place in the starting lineup in which they expect the return of center-back Arbilla.
Probable lineups Eibar: Dmitrovic – Capa, Oliveira, Arbilla, J.Angel – Alejo, Jordan, Dani Garcia, Inui – Charles, S.Enrich
Since the beginning of the season Malaga had major problems and they are at the bottom of the table. They only started playing better in December and there was hope that they could get out of the relegation zone, but then there was a new drop and they are now in a series of four defeats in which they have not scored a single goal, so coach Michel is dismissed. As they played, it is a real miracle that he was not dismissed before, but the leaders of Malaga had the utmost patience. The new coach is Jose Manuel Gonzalez and their only goal is to survive.
Before this round, they were on the penultimate place on the table, with seven points less than the safe zone, and it is clear how difficult a task they will now have. It is a little comforting that those four defeats in the series, three ended with a score of 1-0. They could have done more in these duels, but their attack was not in the best mood and they have to fix that urgently. They brought Bueno from Porto and he should be a starter, because Penaranda, Baston and Rolan have injury problems.
Probable lineups Malaga: R.Jimenez – Rosales, Hernandez, Miquel, Ricca – Recio, Iturra, Gonzalez – Keko, Bueno, Ontiveros
Eibar is in good mood lately and they can now be maximally relieved, so they are definitely favourites against Malaga, which is sinking deeper and deeper. However, the guests have changed their coach and they are not losing very convincingly, so they can also provide good resistance to another game in which there will not be a lot of goals.
Pick: under 2.5 goals
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