Malaga vs Osasuna preview - Pellegrini set to ring the changes

Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini insists Thursday's 7-0 defeat at Real Madrid will have no effect on his side's attempt to avoid relegation from the Primera Division.

Former Madrid coach Pellegrini endured an unhappy return to the Bernabeu, but claims his side could not have expected to take a positive result from the clash with Jose Mourinho's men.

"We didn't come to contest the points; the game was just a formality," he said. "Against a team like Real Madrid we couldn't have expected to take a positive result from the game, so the truth is the match won't affect us at all."

Pellegrini rested a host of first-team players for the trip to the capital, in order to keep them fresh for the Primera Division clash at home to Osasuna.

"Six first-team players didn't play because I wanted to reserve them for the game against Osasuna," he said. "And Weligton, (Martin) Demichelis and Eliseu (Pereira) only played because I didn't have anyone else."

Malaga - still missing injured trio Sergio Asenjo, Duda and Javier Malagueno - beat Almeria 3-1 in their last home match to move off the bottom of the table, but Pellegrini's side lie in 19th and are three points behind 17th-placed Hercules with 12 rounds of the championship remaining.

Osasuna, in 16th, are also three points ahead of Malaga.

But having kicked off Jose Luis Mendilibar's reign at the club in style with a 4-0 win at home to Espanyol two weeks ago, the Pamplona-based side have received a dose of realism since then, losing 2-1 at Levante last weekend and then failing to beat struggling Deportivo La Coruna at home in midweek.

At Malaga, the northerners will once again go in search of their first away win in the league this season.

"It's psychological," striker Dejan Lekic said. "We can't go any longer without winning away from home."

Ruper has been joined on the sidelines by striker Walter Pandiani, who is out for a month.