A bullet header from Mallorca’s Kosovan striker Vedat Muriqi (his 14th of the season) in the 64th minute was enough to give all three points to Real Mallorca, pushing the already-safe Palma side into a highly creditable 11th place on 47 points.
The proud claim on most Mallorquinistas’ lips after the game was “Just how good is South Korean star Kang In Lee?!” Once again, in a rain-soaked Son Moix, he delighted the 14,631 spectators which included many of his countrymen/women.
With a middle finger up to the team who game him away for nothing two years ago, his asking price in the transfer market is now 20 million euros. As the game kicked off, Mallorca’s coach Javier Aguirre started him as left wing back, and he looked isolated. Thankfully the coach saw the error of his ways and switched Kang back into his normal attacking midfield role, and he took the game by the scruff of the neck. So far there have been no bids for the 22-year-old South Korean as his heart is set on going to a bigger club on a bigger stage. He was key to this hard-fought three-pointer as he found his rhythm in the second half with his tackling, dribbling and all-round tenacity. With his fifth assist of the season, his pinpoint cross was headed home by Muriqi. Before that the game wasn’t great by any stretch but we kept a poor Valencia side, who dominated the first half, under control for long periods. After watching Spanish football for all of 40 years, this was without doubt the worst Valencia side I’ve seen. But in their favour, several of their young players took the eye and will do well next season in whichever league “Los Che” find themselves.
Mallorca grew into the game, especially after we’d broken the deadlock. Kang In Lee broke his ex employers’ hearts with another virtuoso performance and his whipped-in cross for our goal was world class.
Near the end, with Valencia throwing caution to the wind, Rajkovic made a couple of stunning saves to keep Mallorca in the driving seat. This was our eighth win in 13 home matches. We play Barcelona on Sunday night, unfortunately without Kang In Lee who picked up a fifth yellow card.
We could see some white smoke coming out of the Son Moix chimney early next week as coach Aguirre is reportedly set to sign a new deal. He’s responsible for giving us our best league position since the 2011/12 season. Visca Mallorca!