Malaga defender Miguel Helder Rosario headed an injury-time equalizer to deny Villarreal the chance to go top of the Primera Liga at the Estadio La Rosaleda.
Villarreal began the day with designs on overtaking leaders Barcelona, who play later today, but they had to be content with drawing level on points with the Catalans after twice letting leads slip.
Prolific strike pairing Giuseppe Rossi and Joseba Llorente were both on target for the visitors, to take their combined season's tally to 11 goals, but Malaga hit back on both occasions with Sergio Duda and then Helder Rosario on target.
The point for Malaga ends their three-game losing run and went some way to casting aside thoughts of last week's 4-3 defeat against reigning champions Real Madrid, when they had led on three occasions.
Villarreal had suffered the indignity of going out of the Copa del Rey at the hands of Segunda B outfit Polideportivo Ejido in midweek and looked eager to put that disappointment behind them following a bright start to the game.
Llorente had already seen a long-range strike fly wide of the left-hand post when Rossi put them ahead in the eighth minute.
The 21-year-old striker fired a low shot from the edge of the area inside the left-hand post for his fifth goal of the league campaign.
Villarreal were buoyed by their early strike and went in search of a second with Robert Pires attempting a lobbed 25-yard shot that drifted over the crossbar.
Malaga had been well off the pace in the opening exchanges, but despite that were level after 29 minutes.
Their goal owed solely to the brilliance of Portuguese midfielder Duda who, after Marcos Senna had fouled Helder Rosario on the edge of the area, fired an unstoppable free-kick into the top left-hand corner of the goal.
While the goal served to slow Villarreal's earlier enterprise, Manuel Pellegrini's troops have proved themselves to be made of stern stuff so far in a league campaign they are yet to taste defeat in.
It took them just four second-half minutes to restore their advantage with Llorente finding the net for his sixth time in the league this season.
The 28-year-old striker had thrashed a shot from six yards over the crossbar moments earlier, but made no mistake when afforded a second chance from the same position with a clinical finish into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal.
After being stung by Duda's strike earlier, Villarreal looked to maintain their attacking intent as they sought the comfort of a two-goal lead.
Malaga goalkeeper Francesc Arnau had other ideas, however, as he twice denied Rossi his second goal of the game with reflex saves.
The second of his blocks, with his foot, had fallen to Ariel Ibagaza but Duarte Jesus Gamez got in the way of his follow-up effort as the hosts valiantly kept themselves in the game.
Villarreal were dealt a blow in the 71st minute when Sebastian Eguren suffered what looked to be a serious injury and had to be replaced by Soriano Bruno.
But there would be even worse news in injury time when, with the game seemingly in their keeping, Villarreal conceded an equalizer from another set-piece.
This time it was an Albert Luque corner that caused the problems for the away defense as they failed to pick up Helder Rosario who planted his header into the net to claim an unlikely point for Malaga.
