In an ill-tempered encounter which saw an incredible 31 fouls committed, Real Mallorca’s poor start of the season continued when they went down 3-2 to Granada. Mallorca have up to now won only twice there in 20 visits. This game was another hard watch (I viewed it in a bar called D’presion, an apt name for 100 minutes of petty fouls, lack of quality and poor officiating). The result meant Mallorca have only one point from three games and we desperately need a win as soon as possible.
At the moment Mallorca look like a team of strangers and without the injured Raillo at the heart of the defence we look vulnerable. It took Granada only 12 minutes to go ahead when midfielder Miguel Rubo headed in easily beating his marker Gio Gonzalez.
Shortly after Mallorca had a golden chance to draw level. Granada’s Melendo brought down Toni Lato inside the box. Abdon Prats (a surprise choice up front) picked the ball up and looked the likely taker. However he handed the ball to Muriqi who failed to convert, lamenting his second penalty miss in three games. Muriqi looks so out of sorts at the moment and with him struggling for some kind of form and Raillo sidelined for several months, Mallorca looked ragged, slow and bereft of ideas. The Palma side equalised in the 37th minute when Abdon Prats fired home from close range giving us parity at half time.
Granada have in their ranks one of the rising stars of Spanish football (before he gets whisked away to Saudi Arabia !) in 22-year-old Bryan Zaragoza. He picked up a loose ball, ran through an empty midfield to hit a “worldy” from outside the box with the outside of his boot and in off Valjent, 2-1.
Referee Hernandez Maeso was in charge of his first La Liga game and he lost control in the second half. Our situation almost plumbed new depths when Gio Gonzalez was sent off for what looked like a hard tackle on Zaragoza. The referee via VAR changed his mind and settled for only a yellow card.
Just as we did last week against Valladolid, for the last five minutes we began to finally play the type of football I know this RCD Mallorca are capable of.
Substitute Cyle Larin fell on the ball in the 72nd minute giving away a really soft penalty. Albanian striker Uzuni made it 3-1 from the spot and Samu Costa scored from close range to make it 3-2.
Mallorca finished the game with three strikers, Muriqi, Larin and Amath, but they never looked like scoring on Saturday night. Granada held out for their first win. As for Real Mallorca, we’ll spend this week soul-searching after our second straight defeat.
It doesn’t get any easier as we face Athletic Club Bilbao next Sunday before the international break. The Bilbao game is still scheduled for a 16:15 kick off but there’s a big chance the game will be put back a few hours.
On Saturday night Mallorca were all over the place, we lacked ideas, players looked out of position and our defence were woeful. It’s going to be another difficult week for coach Javier Aguirre as he has to get this team back to winning ways.