Bigspending Malaga rebounded from an opening defeat to hand newboys Granada a resounding 4-0 defeat on Monday in the Spanish championship.
Two goals apiece for Spanish international duo Santi Cazorla and Joaquin Sanchez gave the ambitious South coast club their first points of the season in this Andalusian derby.
Malaga spent over 60 million of owner Qatari Sheikh Al-Thani's fortune this summer, so defeat in the first game away to Sevilla was disappointing, but on Monday two of those big name signings showed that they could well be worth the outlay.
Cazorla, recruited for 20 million euros from Villarreal, opened the scoring after four minutes of his home debut with a left footed drive from 20 yards.
Joaquin, who also arrived in August from Valencia, then neatly directed home a Jesus Gamez centre with his head after 25 minutes.
Veteran goalscorer Ruud van Nistelrooy nearly added a third after 34 minutes, shooting just wide after great team play put him clear on goal.
Cazorla added to his tally on 47 minutes with a free kick that squeezed through a loose defensive wall to find the left hand corner of the goal.
And it was left to Joaquin to complete the rout on 72 minutes, coolly converting Cazorla's pinpoint pass from the left channel.
For Granada it was a steep learning curve throughout, on their first away day back in Spain's top division, but they showed enough to give hope for future success.
In other games this weekend, Real Madrid beat Getafe 4-2 on Saturday to take an early two point advantage over Barcelona at the top of the league, after the Catalan side dropped points letting a 2-0 lead slip to draw 2-2 away to Real Sociedad.
Valencia beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 to join Real Madrid at the top with two victories from two games, and on Sunday Real Betis beat Real Mallorca 1-0 to do the same.
Meanwhile Espanyol beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1 in an entertaining Sunday night clash to collect their first points of the season.
While Villarreal put up a battling performance, after losing goalkeeper Diego Lopez to a first half red card, to draw 2-2 with Sevilla.
Source: AFP
