Next Saturday, 13th of December 2014, a consistent Málaga, which returned to wins last weekend, will entertain Celta de Vigo at La Rosaleda for round 15 of the Spanish Liga BBVA, on a match during which the visitors will certainly try and put an end to their recent poor run of results and claim the three points.

Celta de Vigo are indeed going through a very negative moment that started right after their spectacular win at Camp Nou more than one month ago. Los Celestes conceded their fourth defeat of the season when they visited the all-powerful Real Madrid last Saturday as they lost by 3-0. The match, however, could have had a completely different end if the referee, Undiano Mallenco, hadn’t conceded a penalty when Cristiano Ronaldo dived when disputing the ball with Celta’s left back, Jonny, still outside the box. The penalty, which Ronaldo transformed into Real’s first goal, changed the match entirely and, from that moment on, the current European champions controlled almost every aspect of the game.

Eduardo Berizzo, who by the way has been doing an excellent job with the Galician team, certainly understands the urgent need for returning to wins, otherwise Celta might enter on a neverending downward spiral.

The match at La Rosaleda next Saturday will certainly be far from easy, as Los Celestes will face a very organized team that usually is twice as strong when playing at home. For that particular clash, Toto Berizzo will most certainly not be able to rely on the contribution of the Argentinean centre back Gustavo Cabral, who suffered an injury on the match against Los Blancos last weekend. The team’s captain, Borja Oubina, will also lose La Rosaleda’s match due to a long term injury.

As for Málaga, the Andalusian team returned to wins last weekend when they visited Riazor to measure forces with Deportivo La Coruña, but they had to dig very deep to grant the three points. The home side missed a penalty early in the first-half and had plenty more goal chances than Málaga, but a goal by Darder on the 21st minute was enough to secure the win. The Andalusia team is currently on the 7th place of the table and have been doing a very good campaign so far this season with just four defeats in fourteen matches.

Having in mind what happened on both teams’ recent matches, Málaga have to be considered favourites for the next Saturday’s clash, although, if Celta manage to replicate some of the excellent performances they’ve produced this season, they might take something positive from their travel to Andalusia.

Málaga

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - WDLLL

Celta de Vigo

Stats: W-0 L-4 D-1

Recent Form - LLLLD

Possible Line-ups

Málaga (4-2-3-1) - Kameni - Rosales - Angeleri - Weligton - Antunes - Camacho - Darder - Samuel - Duda - Castillejo - Santa Cruz

Celta de Vigo (4-3-3) - Sérgio Álvarez - Jonny - Fontas - Gomez - Mallo - Álex Lopez - Radoja - Krohn Dehli - A. Fernandez - Nolito - Larrivey

Prediction

Málaga 1 Celta de Vigo 1