Málaga get a clean shot at escape on Sunday when they host Levante at La Rosaleda, with three points enough to lift them off the bottom of the table. Dani Lorenzo is back available after missing the Real Madrid match with a fever, and Juan Francisco Funes is expected to use that return to change a side that has too often been forced to react instead of dictate.
The timing matters because Málaga need a response after the 4-0 defeat to Real Madrid, while Levante arrive on 4 of 6 points and fresh from a 5-2 win over Betis. For the home side, the equation is simple: win and they can leave last place on Sunday, lose or draw and the pressure stays exactly where it is.
There is at least some movement in Funes’s squad. Adrián Niño could be available despite a muscle problem and a wait to make his top-flight debut, while Jens Cajuste, Juan Berrocal and Adam Aznou are set to be in the squad without starting. Julen Lobete remains out with a torn left ACL and Aaron Ochoa will undergo surgery on a torn right meniscus, which leaves Málaga short of options even as the bench looks a little fuller than it did a week ago.
The expected change is a single one, with Dani Lorenzo set to replace Rafa Rodríguez in the starting side. That would leave Málaga with Alfonso Herrero, Puga, Recio, Einar Galilea, Rafita, Larrubia, Dotor, Izan Merino, Joaquín, Dani Lorenzo and Chupete, a lineup built more for control than for survival. Levante, meanwhile, are not expected to alter much beyond Toljan coming in for Nacho Pérez at right back, and Luís Castro can also count on Petar Ratkov and Axel Tape after their arrivals from Lazio and Bayer Leverkusen.
Even so, Levante bring one awkward detail into the game: they have never won away at Málaga in Primera División. Etta Eyong was bothered in Friday’s session and did not train with the group on Saturday, so that part of Levante’s plan still carries uncertainty. For Málaga, the challenge is less complicated and more brutal: turn a home game into a reset, or spend another week staring up from the bottom with the same problems still in place.
