Fulham walk off as Malaga score penalty into empty net in pre-season friendly farce

Fulham's players were already heading down the tunnel when Malaga's Eneko Jauregi placed the ball on the penalty spot and rolled it into an empty net.

The scene, at Malaga's Estadio La Rosaleda in southern Spain, came at the end of a pre-season friendly for the Costa del Sol Trophy that had finished 2-2 after 90 minutes. Malaga believed a penalty shootout — the standard way to settle a drawn friendly tournament match — was scheduled to follow. Fulham did not.

The confusion stemmed from the closing moments of normal time. With the score at 2-1 to Fulham, defender Calvin Bassey was penalised for handball in the box. Jauregi converted the spot kick to level the match in the last minute (BBC Sport).

That should have been that, as far as Fulham were concerned. The club maintains that both sides agreed before kick-off that the match would end without a shootout if the scores were level (BBC Sport). Fulham's official match report described the game as a 2-2 draw, with the late penalty denying them victory (Fulham FC).

Malaga saw things differently. A post-match report on the Spanish club's website acknowledged that a shootout had been scheduled, but said Fulham left the pitch claiming a shootout had not been included in the pre-match contract (BBC Sport).

While Fulham's squad disappeared down the tunnel, Malaga's players stayed on the pitch. Jauregi stepped up, placed the ball, and rolled his penalty into the unguarded net before celebrating with team-mates in front of the home support.

Fulham head coach Alvaro Arbeloa — a former Real Madrid manager — was sent off for remonstrating with the referee at full-time before joining his players down the tunnel (BBC Sport).

It was an undignified end to Fulham's penultimate friendly of the summer (Fulham FC). They conclude their pre-season preparations against Stuttgart on Saturday before the real business begins: their 2026-27 Premier League opener against Chelsea at Craven Cottage on Monday, 24 August, kicking off at 20:00 BST (BBC Sport).

What makes the whole episode curious is how avoidable it was. Pre-season friendlies are arranged with individually negotiated terms — how long the match lasts, whether penalties follow, how many substitutes are permitted. Whatever the paperwork said, two professional clubs somehow left the pitch with entirely different understandings of what was supposed to happen next. A man walked up to a penalty spot, looked at an empty goal, and scored. In football, that does not happen often.