Barcelona have endured a frustrating afternoon as they were held to a goalless draw by nine-man Malaga in Saturday's La Liga clash at Camp Nou.
Luis Enrique's squad was missing Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Andres Iniesta, while a combination of grit, goalkeeping excellence and luck by the visiting side ensured that Juande Ramos's charges were able to leave Catalonia with a point.
The hosts were bright from the off as Paco Alcacer drilled the ball into the back of the opposition net, but the goal was disallowed for offside.
It would be the first of many decisions of the afternoon against Barca, who saw numerous penalty calls waved away by referee Ricardo de Burgos.
In addition, a second goal was chalked off late in the second half when Gerard Pique, shifted up front, bundled a rebound home from Andre Gomes's effort.
Malaga goalkeeper Carlos Kameni was excellent on the day as he kept out several gilt-edges chances, most notably from Rafinha on the half-hour mark.
The Brazilian very nearly wrongfooted the stopper with a deflected shot, but the 32-year-old recovered well to get down and get a strong right hand to deny the home side from taking the lead.
Kameni also kept out Neymar's injury-time diving header, leaping across his goal to deny the talismanic Brazil forward a match-winning goal.
Malaga hung on for dear life and finished the game with nine men, with Diego Llorente seeing red for a scything tackle on Neymar and Juan Carlos dismissed for remonstrating with the referee late on.
The result keeps Barcelona second in the La Liga table, while Malaga also remain where they started pre-game in 10th place.
Giuseppe Labellarte
