Deportivo Alavés 1-1 Málaga CF: Primera Division Match Report, 23 October 2026

Our preview of this match was written on 18 October 2026 but only went live on 1 November, after the final whistle. Its pick is reviewed below as it was written, and it is left out of our win rate and bankroll.

For the first time this season Deportivo Alavés went in at half-time behind, and for the first time Málaga CF went in ahead. The second half brought Alavés level and no further: Deportivo Alavés 1-1 Málaga CF.

On the table this was a home win waiting to happen. Alavés kicked off seventh on 11 points from nine with a goal difference of plus three; Málaga were twentieth on four, minus twelve, the only club in the division still without a win, and had lost 2-5 at home to Real Sociedad five days earlier. Alavés had won their first three home matches of the season, 3-0, 1-0 and 5-2.

That was August and early September. Since the 5-2 against Osasuna on 6 September, Alavés had taken one point from five matches, and this stretches the run to six without a win. They have not scored more than once in any of those six, and at Mendizorroza the last three read 0-1, 1-2 and 1-1.

Málaga's point is their fifth draw in ten, and both their away points have come from 1-1s, at Celta in September and here. Who scored, and how late the equaliser came, is not on record. What is on record is that a side never ahead at a half-time all season could not keep its first such lead.

For Alavés it is twelve points from ten, goal difference unchanged at plus three, and the split between their first month and everything since keeps widening: ten of the twelve points came in the opening four matches. Twelve from ten is close to last season's rate, when they finished fourteenth on 43 points with a minus-12 difference. The early table made them look like a different club; six matches have taken that impression back.

Málaga reach five points from ten, all from draws, with seven goals scored. As a promoted side they have no top-flight season to measure against, and ten matches without a win is no longer a slow start. Their first half-time lead of the campaign still did not become a win, which is the step they have yet to show they can take.

Our preview's call was Deportivo Alavés Win at 1.65. The grade was medium, and the case was the home-and-away split: ten of Alavés's thirteen goals had come at home, and Málaga had one goal in four away trips.

The run decided it, not the split. The preview set out one point from five, two home defeats in a row and an attack held to one goal or none since 6 September, then backed that side to win outright at 1.65. Against an opponent that had drawn four of nine, that needed the Alavés of early September. It even called the draw the live alternative, and still took the win. Its claim that Málaga arrived rested had also lapsed: they played on 18 October, the same day as Alavés.

Verdict: not counted. The pick would have lost, but the preview only went live after kick-off.