High-flying Malaga have been held to a goalless draw by relegation candidates Espanyol away from home in La Liga.

The visitors from Andalucia dominated the match from start to finish and made their first attempt on goal after four minutes.

Roque Santa Cruz sent Duda through on goal, but his shot from outside the box was saved by Cristian Alvarez.

A minute later Isco saw his right-footed attempt from outside the 18-yard box go wide, before Juan Forlin's header from Mubarak Wakaso's delivery went just wide of the mark.

Santa Cruz tried his luck on 13 minutes but in vain, and then Martin Demichelis saw his header from close range go just agonisingly wide of the Espanyol goal.

The defender came close with yet another header in the 34th minute, but once again failed to keep it on target by a very small margin.

Espanyol could have taken a surprise lead just two minutes into the second half when Raul Rodriguez forced Wilfredo Caballero into making a good save with a header from a Joan Verdu cross.

Thereafter, Malaga started to dominate, with Seba Fernandez, Jesus Gamez and Santa Cruz all testing Alvarez.

It was Alvarez who rescued a point for Espanyol in injury time when he kept out Santa Cruz's low header.