A little over 18 months since the club went into financial meltdown, shrewd signings and an emphasis on youth have lifted Málaga to within a point of the top four

Luis Alberto set foot on the pitch on 76 minutes and 26 seconds, got his first touch at 76.44, went past Mario Pasalic on 76.45, beat Enzo Roco on 76.46 and took aim on 76.47. The clock said 76.48 when the ball hit the net and it had not long passed 76.50 when he stuffed it up his top, team-mates piling on. From a goal down, Málaga were 2-1 up. When the final whistle went 15 minutes later, they embraced, shouted and danced in celebratory circles. Sergi Darder, the man taken off on 76.25, published a picture from the dressing room: a trestle table topped with tupperware, raised arms, alien eyes, big grins and a victory sign or two. “This is a team.” Darder cheered.

The hashtag read: “Come On Málaga!” You’d think they had won something, not just scraped past Elche – the team at the bottom of the table who’d lost four in a row and won only once in 13, the club in crisis whose fans pulled out the hankies and whose manager moaned afterwards: “I can’t do any more.”

You’d think that, but then it wasn’t just Elche; it was Elche and Celta and Deportivo, Eibar, Real Sociedad, Rayo, Córdoba and Granada too. It was that of the last 10 games, Málaga have won eight, only losing to the two big teams from Madrid (and that you have to go back 13 games for the last time Madrid scored fewer goals). It was that they drew with Barcelona. It was that if you take a look at the table this morning you’ll see that Málaga are a solitary point off the final Champions League place; that they have 30 points. “30 puntazos,” Darder wrote. 30 Big Points.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way; no one can quite believe it. The match report of Málaga’s 2-1 victory over Elche in Diario del Sur on Monday morning opens with the line: “Thirty points. Yes, yes, thirty points.”

It’s only 20 months since that Champions League semi-final against Borussia Dortmund, but Málaga inhabit a different world now. Of the starting XI that night, four remain. This weekend, Isco was winning the World Club Championship with Real Madrid. He went that summer of 2013, just like Joaquín, Jérémy Toulalan, Martín Demichelis and Júlio Baptista. The manager left too: Manuel Pellegrini went to Manchester City, where he won the league. The glory days were over quickly. Last season, Málaga finished 11th, 14 points off the European places; at times, they had been uncomfortably close to the relegation zone.

This summer, Willy Caballero, Eliseu and Jesús Gámez followed Joaquín, Toulalan and Baptista out of the door. Málaga’s owner had long since withdrawn his investment, the promise to compete with Madrid and Barcelona ditched , and this summer he said he was leaving completely, complaining of a lack of equality and affection. Ten players came in, sure, but they cost a total of €1.3m, all bar two of them signed on loan or for free. The one World Cup star they did sign – the Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa – hasn’t played a single game in the league. The old manager walked and the new manager had just been relegated: Javi Gracia finished last season going down with Osasuna after 14 consecutive years in primera.

Málaga had little choice but to restructure the club. It had been good while it lasted but it couldn’t last long; even when they were splashing €60m in a single summer they had insisted that they weren’t making “mad signings” but hindsight suggested otherwise: they were creating an enormous deficit and when the external investment from the owner dried up, they faced a crisis. The situation was as chaotic as it was concerning. Inland Revenue was on their back, the debt heading beyond a hundred million, which has been virtually paid up in full now, and so were clubs they owed money to. Uefa banned them from European competition.

It was not just that Málaga could not make signings, it was that they had to sell – not to raise the money, although they needed cash quickly to satisfy their creditors, but to shed the salaries that they had paid to attract players in the first place. Málaga were spending more on salaries alone than they were generating each year: some estimates put the difference between the cost of paying the players and the money made at more than €20m. Over €50m was going on salaries alone. There was no way of sustaining that, so they embarked on a complete restructuring. The budget dropped from €120m two years ago to €39m this season. The highest salaries in that Champions League season were close to €6m, while the manager too was on big money; now, only a couple of players are over €2m – and only just.

The first wave of cuts happened last year but the restructuring continued this summer. The biggest earners no longer remained but some players still had contracts dating from better times. Carlos Kameni was about to leave – with Ochoa signed to be his replacement – but he agreed to renew his contract, spreading the money he was due to make in the final 18 months of his current deal over the next four years. Eliseu, Gámez and Caballero were among the best paid players and departed. Roque Santa Cruz played his last game for the club on Sunday night. “He’s a 10/10 in everything and he will leave a hole that we can not fill,” Javi Gracia said. “I feel proud of having coached him.” Others will follow, if offers arrive.

In their place, Málaga are turning to youth. Of the nine players that played in midfield or the attack last night, six were born in the 1990s: Horta (94), Camacho (90), Darder (93), Castillejo (95), Recio (91), and Luis Alberto (92). Then there’s Juanmi (93), Juampi (94) and Samu García (90). Mario Husillos, the sporting director, has built carefully. Determinedly too: he travelled to Portugal to speak to Ricardo Horta and persuade him to sign, literally turning up one day and announcing to Horta: “Hello, I’m Mario Husillos, you don’t know me but I want you to sign for Málaga.” He and Castillejo, particularly, have impressed.

There are exceptions to the trend. Nordin Amrabat, on loan last season, was signed for €1m; born in 1987, much of the attacking responsibility lies with him and he has three goals so far this season. Ignacio Camacho’s new contract brought with it a salary increase: Málaga see Camacho, who is still only 24 but played in that semi-final against Dortmund, as the new leader and his role will be important. The defence remains experienced: Sergio Sánchez, the club’s best paid player is 28; Weligton and summer signing Marcos Angeleri are older.

The reason is strategic. At long last, a new collective TV deal draws close, with the amounts earned by each club likely to be set by league positions. Málaga thought they had to maintain a strong nucleus, lessen the pressure on the young players, and use what little money they had to add something different as they seek to compete for the top eight or nine places which will bring a significantly better deal. Small margins, they thought, can bring large rewards.

Then there was the manager; Husillos sought someone who fit that new profile. When he turned to Javi Gracia, the idea was to find someone who knew the Spanish league and was not afraid to bring in young players – something that neither Pellegrini nor Bernd Schuster really did. They wanted a manager who would connect with the fans too after Schuster’s often tense relationship with pretty much everyone. Defensive drudgery was not their thing, either. Gracia had been relegated with Osasuna but he had taken over there with an almost impossible task before him and he had previously won promotions with Almería and Cádiz, from the Second and Second Division B respectively, as well as twice reaching the play-offs with Pontevedra.

Listening to Gracia talk, it is hard not to be impressed. There is no arrogance, no show, and every word is convincing. Naturally, there were doubts at first but they have gone. Players have been convinced, certainly; struck by the depth of knowledge and the hours he puts in, the level of preparation, and the intelligence and clarity with which he conveys his ideas, building a team dynamic.

He has also been fair. Kameni is an example: he was given a chance at the start of the year, having joined pre-season before Ochoa, and he has played superbly so he kept his place. “The panther’s back,” Iker Casillas told him after the Madrid game. Luis Alberto is another: on loan from Liverpool, he has started just five games, despite scoring on his debut. On Sunday, he came on as a sub. Twenty-two seconds later, he had won the game. “Competition for place is intense and the players know that. They’re the ones that appear and make the difference. Tonight, Luis Alberto did,” Gracia said.

It was a brilliant goal and it put them level with Sevilla and Villarreal, just a point behind Valencia. If competing for the top seven or eight places was part of the plan, no one truly imagined this, even if Málaga have superb support with over 20,000 season ticket holders in a region where unemployment is nudging 40%. European football was a vague idea, never an objective. Survival was the only target, and they are probably only 10 points off that already, with 22 games left. Meanwhile, they are 10 points ahead of Celta in eighth. They have never, ever had as many points after 16 games.

In part Málaga’s run has been a product of the fixture list. Some will conclude that they should beat Elche, Celta, Deportivo, Eibar, Real Sociedad, Rayo, Córdoba and Granada. But beat all of them? In a row without ceding anything? And should they really? Measured against expectation and resources, Málaga may just be the outstanding performers of the season so far – after Eibar.

Next up, Málaga play Villarreal, Sevilla, Athletic and then Valencia. It is perfectly possible that they will lose all four. But, unlike the team that for one, brief season had Málaga’s fans dreaming of winning the European Cup, finding themselves just seconds away from the final, those 30 points cannot be taken from them. Nor, in all probability, will seventh place. Not yet, anyway. “Thanks God. Congratulations to everybody,” said the club’s owner Al-Thani on twitter. After the win over Elche, Javi Gracia said that Málaga are in a “privileged position”. In four games’ time they still will be.

Talking points

• At half-time at San Mamés, Diego Simeone told his players to go out and enjoy the second half. It has been a “fabulous 2014”, he said. “Now, end it the right way.” Atlético Madrid were 1-0 down at Athletic Bilbao. Less than a minute later, it was 1-1, thanks to a truly wonderful goal, six first-time touches, ping-ping-pinging their way past the Athletic defence to Juanfran on the right. His cross was headed in by Antoine Griezmann.

And so it was that the comeback was on. It finished 4-1 to Atlético, who have now been to the new San Mamés three times. All three times they have trailed and all three times they came back to win. Simeone said that it was winning there last season that convinced him that they could win the league. This win prevented them from slipping seven points behind Real Madrid (having played a game more).

“I don’t know how we lost that,” Ernesto Valverde said. The penalty to make it 2-1, scored by Raúl García, was extremely ropey and Griezmann was offside for the fourth. “There’s contact,” admitted the Atlético director Clemente Villaverde, “but I don’t know who provokes it.” Tiago Mendes had. All that was bad about the match made it good. At times it was brutal. The kind of game when the players got back to the dressing room and counted the number of limbs they had, just to make sure they were all there. When it came to counting the goals, Griezmann had it easier: all he needed to do was glance at the matchball in his hands.

• A last-minute penalty for a questionable handball cost Real Sociedad their first away win of the season, at Levante. David Moyes marched on to the pitch at the end, and no wonder. Asked about his confrontation with the referee afterwards, he replied: “I didn’t say anything to him; I just looked at him.” Moyes heads off for his first Christmas break. His record so far: seven games, four draws, two wins, one loss and four clean sheets.

• Eibar are the Basque Country’s best club this Christmas.

• 570 minutes later, Luis Suárez got his first league goal for Barcelona as they beat Córdoba 5-0 in a game that one paper described as “tedious”. They were probably right too; there’s still something unconvincing about Barcelona. Leo Messi scored two more, the second of them brilliantly taken; he hooked the ball out of the sky, turned and hit it almost instantly. He hit it, like he had the first, with his right foot too. He has now scored more with his right than his left this season: 11-10. Can it really be coincidence?

• “After one minute it was over. 1-0 down in a minute, there’s no story … There were few fouls, few bollocks, and that hurts me. I feel ashamed when I see – fucking great! – that [Andrés] Iniesta is more aggressive than we are. That hurts. With the greatest of respect to Iniesta, we all know he has other qualities .… Barcelona scored two from dead balls against us and they don’t [score from dead balls] against anyone … We went out there before the game to ask Barcelona’s players for their shirts. Turn off the lights, let’s get out of here. It hurts. I feel ashamed … I am sorry and they’ll be sorry too. The players who play will be the ones with balls. I’ll go down to the Second Division but with warriors, with players who have the knife between our teeth. They may not have a fucking clue how to play football but they’ll have the knife between their teeth. If we don’t have the knife between our teeth, there’s nothing we can do. In this shitty life, either you’re good or you’re a warrior, but you have to have something … I know that Barcelona is not our game but either we change things or we’re going nowhere.”

Anyone else think the Córdoba manager Miroslav Djukic wasn’t impressed?

• “If I was the president I would sack the coach and almost the entire squad. We’re not good enough for the first division. We’re going to suffer like dogs, dogs I say.”

Anyone else think the Rayo manager Paco Jémez wasn’t impressed either?

• Maybe Jémez was just annoyed about the weekend’s best tackle? Here it is: He can’t complain about Cristian Álvarez’s commitment, at least.

• “For now, I’m staying.” So says Getafe’s manager, Cosmin Contra. But not for long. And his departure speaks volumes about the club right now.

• Villarreal: quietly going about being very, very good indeed – 389 minutes without conceding, five wins in a row and a manager who declares himself “proud … and very satisfied.”

• Celta: beat Barcelona, haven’t won since. In fact, they haven’t even scored since then. That’s a 0-0 draw and five defeats in a row now.

• Real Madrid head off for Christmas top of the table, despite not playing this weekend. Their game with Sevilla has been postponed to February because they were in Morocco winning the Club World Cup. Madrid have won four trophies in 2014 – the best total in their history. Gareth Bale has scored in three finals for Madrid: the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona, the Champions League final against Atlético Madrid, and now the Club World Cup final against San Lorenzo. The only final he didn’t score in was the one in Cardiff … and he did provide an assist then. But the real hero was Sergio Ramos. He did it again: the man who scored in the semi-final and the final of the Champions League scored in the semi-final and the Club World Cup final too. He won the Golden Ball award and got a gigantic car key, which hung round his neck like a guitar.

• “I got taken off at 2-3. When I got out the shower, it was 3-5,” said Lugo’s Jonathan Valle. He needn’t have worried: he still hadn’t missed the best bit. Or perhaps that should read “worst bit”. There were 11 minutes and four goals still to go. His Lugo team made it 3-6 at Numancia and it seemed all over. But then Numancia made it 4-6 in the 83rd minute, made it 5-6 in the 90th and 6-6 in the 90th and they still had time to almost grab a winner. It finished 6-6 – the first time a second division match has ever ended 6-6, 31,633 games later. It has only ever happened once in the first division too.

• And who’s top in Segunda B, group I? Oh, look. Happy Christmas, everyone.

Results: Celta 0-1 Almería, Barcelona 5-0 Córdoba, Levante 1-1 Real Sociedad, Eibar 0-1 Valencia, Rayo 1-3 Espanyol, Villarreal 3-0 Deportivo, Granada 1-1 Getafe, Elche 1-2 Málaga, Athletic 1-4 Atlético, Real Madrid versus Sevilla, 4 February.