Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gerard Pique came off the bench to inspire
Barcelona to a fifth straight Primera Division win over a hard-working
Malaga side.
Ibrahimovic was left out of the starting line-up after picking
up an ankle injury in Tuesday night's 4-1 win at Racing Santander.
But the Sweden striker has been making good progress in his recovery
and was called upon after Thierry Henry was forced off through injury
just short of the half-hour mark.
And Ibrahimovic was on the scoresheet 10 minutes later to bag his
fifth goal in as many league games since joining from Inter Milan
in the summer.
But Pique took even less time to make an impact, bagging a second
for the Catalans only three minutes after replacing Dmytro Chygrynskiy
just short of an hour, before Malaga had Duda sent off late on.
Those two strikes gave Barcelona a fifth win in five Primera Division
matches this season, but saw the Catalans drop to second place after
fierce rivals Real Madrid thrashed Tenerife 3-0 at the Santiago
Bernabeu to go top of the table on goal difference.
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