For the umpteenth week, 21-year-old South Korean Kang In Lee was the man of the match as Real Mallorca beat Getafe 3-1 after a truly dreadful first half. Getafe went ahead in the 23rd minute with a flukey opener. Borja Mayoral’s speculative shot ricocheted off Raillo taking an impossible deflection as the ball looped past a helpless Rajkovic and that was about it as far as the first half was concerned.
After the break and an obvious rollocking from boss Javier Aguirre, Mallorca came out with fire in their bellies as they began to overrun Getafe. Kang In Lee in front of dozens of his countrymen/women pulled all the strings for Mallorca and was a real menace to the Getafe defenders. In a breathtaking second half his two goals sent Mallorca into the top half of the table.
His performance on Sunday night should add even more credence to his expected transfer fee in the Summer. He scored the equaliser in the 55th minute, a thundering belter from Manu Morlanes was only parried by Getafe’s goalkeeper Soria and Kang In Lee squirmed his way through to restore parity, 1-1.
Mallorca continued to dominate and it was no surprise when they took the lead, 2-1. A Galarreta corner saw “Captain Marvel” Antonio Raillo rise above a packed penalty area and he powered home a bullet header to give him redemption for his earlier deflection and send 15,687 fans “loco.” That prompted something we haven’t seen at all in the Son Moix this season – the return of the Mexican wave !!
Aguirre rang the charges with a view to our game on Wednesday night away at At. Madrid, (kick off 19:30) strengthening the midfield with the introduction of Baba and Dani Rodriguez (who completed his 100th game in La Liga with Mallorca).
With extra time running out there was still icing on the cake to come and it was that man Kang In Lee again with a stunning third in the 95th minute. He collected a rebound 80 metres from goal and took off like Usain Bolt in his prime to fire home past Soria – there could be no better epilogue for a brilliant second half.
We’ve achieved the mystical 40 points with eight games left, one more point than we achieved all of last season. Coach Aguirre worked the miracle in the second half changing things around and we ran out deserved winners.