Late comeback not enough as Mallorca draw

In what was a dreadful game of football, played in front of a disappointing 17,404 crowd in the Son Moix on Saturday night, Real Mallorca threw away their chances of taking a five-point lead over Rayo Vallecano and a three-point lead over Celta Vigo, with Real Sociedad playing tomorrow (Sunday) night at Villarreal.

As the game started, coach Arrasate had decided to select a team similar to our last coach Javier Aguirre with a five-man defence at home against a team second bottom of La Liga. Up front Arrasate partnered Larin with Abdon Prats which seemed another strange decision as it’s blatantly obvious that Larin seems to only play better on his own.

Not much happened in a dire first half in which both sides only managed to muster one shot on target each, so the scoreless draw wasn’t a surprising result. Until the final ten minutes, Mallorca’s build-up was pitifully slow and we gave the ball away far too often and for long periods we ran about like eleven headless chickens.

The second half was just as mediocre as the first, however the game did come to life in the 64th minute with the introduction of Antonio Sanchez and young B team striker Marc Domenech with the Palma-born youngster having at least two clear-cut scoring chances. In just a few minutes near the end, Mallorca created more danger than they had in the entire match. Canadian striker Cyle Larin once again made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

With time running out, Mallorca were all over Leganes like a rash. Larin and Domenech broke free and the big Canadian homed in on Leganes goalkeeper Dmitrovic. The Leganes keeper came out to narrow the angle and Larin, instead of passing to the unmarked Domenech, decided to have a shot on goal himself, which sailed harmlessly over the bar. Once again it was another head in hands scenario from the Son Moix faithful. Mallorca persisted in lumping long balls up to Larin and for long periods the tedium was gut-wrenching. Thankfully our defence were magnificent as they blocked countless efforts from the visitors.

The result wasn’t what we’d hoped for but thankfully it wasn’t as bad as the game itself, as we jump into seventh place. We’ll have a major headache on Tuesday night when we make the short trip over to play Barcelona at 21:30. Mallorca will have to face the probable league champions not only without their four best players through injury but also Dani Rodriguez and Pablo Maffeo who are suspended.