Real Mallorca lost 1-0 to Real Sociedad on a sunny afternoon in San Sebastian on Saturday in a game they could have won.
The Palma side came flying out of the traps in an impressive opening 20 minutes and should have gone ahead early on when once again culprit-in-chief Cyle Larin missed what looked like an easy chance, as his run of missing gilt-edged chances continues. We didn’t deserve to lose this game and the stats showed we won five corners to Sociedad’s two, and we had seven shots on target to the home side’s six. Coach Aguirre gave Larin another chance to show his mettle and once again he came up well short. Surely, surely, in the next couple of games, he’ll find that elusive goal to set him off on the goal trail. Our coach reverted to his tried and tested back five and they performed heroics against a free-flowing Basque side who had one eye on their Champions League tie with Benfica on Tuesday.
We went in at the break 0-0 looking the better side and came up short by not putting away goal opportunities. No more so than in the 51st minute when Sociedad’s ’keeper Reniro pushed a rasping shot from Dani Rodriguez wide. The rebound went to Larin and the big Canadian fluffed another chance.
Then heartbreak for Mallorca. Take Kubo came on on the hour mark and with his first involvement set up Brais Mendez who headed in the game’s only goal. To say that strike was scored against the run of play would be an understatement. Then Sociedad’s Oyarzabal scored another only to see this effort correctly chalked off for offside.
Then when it seemed Mallorca, after their valiant effort, were running out of gas, came an incredible passage of play. Amath (for a change) went on a Messi-type mazy run into the penalty area. The keeper saved his effort which went onto the head of Muriqi who hit the bar, Amath had another pop cleared off the line by a defender and we were all left wondering how Mallorca hadn’t scored their first goal away at Real Sociedad in 16 years.
With 10 minutes left on the clock, our best player by some distance, Samu Costa, saw his free header in the box go well wide and our best chance of the game was lost.
The referee added on five minutes which was to no avail as Mallorca once again gave a good impression but came away pointless – harsh. After an unbelievable finale, Mallorca will be desperate for all three points at home to Getafe next Saturday night at 18:30.