Defensive errors see Mallorca lose 2-1

Once again a football match came down to what’s termed nowadays as “fine lines” as Mallorca lost on Thursday night to an in-form Girona team who had a young Argentinian striker sensation called “Taty” Castellanos on loan from NFL side New York City FC (who scored his sixth goal in three games) and who was the match winner for the Catalan side, with yet another debatable goal in the 88th minute.

But for me and lots of other Mallorquinistas in a busy Mallorcafé the major talking point was an incident in the 14th minute that unbelievably went unpunished. Girona captain Bernardo was seen to stand/stamp on Vedat Muriqi’s shin when he was lying prostate on the grass. That altercation could have been a leg-breaker as our Kosovan striker gave out a huge roar of anguish. The referee only showed Bernardo a yellow card and ironically he went on to net Girona’s opener two minutes into added-on time in the first half.

That goal was an error from Jaume Costa who somehow allowed the ball to hit his shoulder (or arm !!). Muriqi was very likely battered and bruised all over after this game, playing for long periods in defence. He won a penalty in the 79th minute after his shirt was pulled inside the area. For whatever reason, other than the VAR people were having a second slice of a takeaway pizza, the VAR incident came to a lengthy conclusion.

Once again us Mallorquinistas went over the top with our celebrations as Girona poured forward. A brilliant save by Rajkovic near the end showed that a point was there for us if we could hold on.

Then more controversy minutes from full time. Substitute Dani Rodriguez was clearly hauled down in our penalty area but Spain’s most hated referee (and soon to be retired) Mateu Lahoz in the VAR room in Madrid was non-commital as Castellanos headed in the winner. Bad defending from Mallorca saw us lose two goals from set pieces.

SUMMING UP: In Girona’s midfield was a 31-year-old follically-challenged guy called Oriel Romeu, who came through Barcelona’s La Masia youth academy. After a journeyman start to his professional career in 2015, he joined Southampton and was voted their player of the year twice in his seven years at St Mary’s. He has played a huge part in Girona’s resurgence of late, and they are now knocking on the door of a European Conference League place.

He’s the kind of player we need in the engine room for next season, somebody with experience who can dominate midfield. We haven’t replaced Salva Sevilla (now seeing out his career in Alaves in La Segunda). We lack that little bit of “je ne sais quoi” in midfield.

News that Bilbao’s Raul Garcia may be available in the Summer is good news for us. Even at 37, on a one-year contract, this guy can play 90 minutes plus every game, and is still a presence as one of the best box-to-box players and is one of the hardest men in Spanish football. Ex Mallorca and Bilbao striker Aritz Arduriz is now one of our backroom staff involved in scouting and I’m sure he will be having a few words with Raul.