Zinedine Zidane‘s team are currently fourth in the La Liga table, with Valencia, Atletico Madrid and leaders Barcelona ahead of them.
Here we take a look at some interesting stats and facts prior to the game.
– Málaga have only won one of their 33 meetings vs Real Madrid in La Liga (D8 L24), 3-2 at La Rosaleda in December 2012.
– Los Boquerones have only won one of their last 16 league games (D3 L12), with that victory coming in their last home game (1-0 vs Villarreal).
– Real Madrid have only lost two of their last 24 league games away from home (W18 D4); however, these two defeats came in Catalonian territory (vs Espanyol & Girona).
– Los Merengues have scored in each of their last 19 league games in Andalusia (52 goals, an average of 2.7), their best run in the south of the Spain ever.
– Malaga have only earned one point after conceding the first goal of the game, a low in La Liga this season.
– After 31 matchdays, Real Madrid aren’t in the top three in the table for the first season this century.
– Real Madrid have scored 24 goals from set-pieces, more than any other team in La Liga this season. On the other hand, Málaga have scored 53% of their goals from set pieces, the best percentage of any team in La Liga this season.
– Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 17 goals in his 17 meetings vs Málaga in La Liga and eight goals in his eight league games at La Rosaleda.
– Karim Benzema has scored five goals in La Liga this season, only one more than Málaga’s top scorers in this campaign (Diego Rolan and Gonzalo Castro, four).
– Zinedine Zidane has never lost in his four meetings vs Málaga (W3 L1) since the Frenchman took over at Real Madrid.
Statistics provided by Opta