Malaga 1 - 2 Valencia: Carlos Kameni own goal helps Gary Neville's Valencia to away win

Posted Thursday, March 03, 2016 by PA

Gary Neville's Valencia took advantage of a freakish own goal by home goalkeeper Carlos Kameni to return to winning ways with a 2-1 success at Malaga on Wednesday night.

Neville's men had slipped behind to Duje Cop's 14th-minute opener before Kameni completely mis-judged a harmless cross from the left and palmed it into his own net.

His 41st-minute blunder handed Valencia the boost they needed and Denis Cheryshev went on to grab what turned out to be the winner four minutes into the second half.

It was a valuable victory for Neville's men, who had seen their recent improvement in La Liga brought to an abrupt halt by a 3-0 home defeat to Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

Valencia had started strongly, forcing a series of free-kicks in the Malaga half, but were knocked back when Cop netted the early opener for their mid-table rivals.

Brazilian striker Charles had a chance to double the home side's lead before Kameni was called into action for the first time to block an effort from Aderlan Santos.

Moments later Kameni was left in despair when he flapped wildly at a high cross and somehow contrived to direct it into his own net in front of his startled team-mates.

Cheryshev completed the Valencia comeback in the 49th minute but the home side were not quite done with substitute Ricardo Horta coming close to grabbing an equaliser.

Roberto Rosales missed the target for Malaga and Rodrigo missed a chance for the visitors before Miguel Torres saw the last hope of a Malaga equaliser go begging in injury time.