A bullet diving header from Mallorca’s Kosovan striker Vedat Muriqi in the 12th minute (his first goal since February) gave Mallorca a deserved lead in this relegation trap-door six-pointer against Cadiz on Sunday lunchtime, which finished 1-1. All credit to centre back Martin Valjent whose “worldy” cross saw Muriqi score his sixth goal of the season. Once again Mallorca had gone ahead in the first quarter of an hour and once again Mallorca failed to capitalise on their superiority, sitting back and defending when they should have gone all out to double their lead.
Cadiz struggled to get a grip on the game and rarely threatened despite fantastic support from a full house.
However, in the 59th minute Cadiz were level after Omar Mascarell deflected a Cadiz shot past his own ’keeper and Cadiz were level. It was all hands on deck for Mallorca after that went in and it was time our coach Javier Aguirre made some changes. Instead, he waited far too late to bring on Darder and Morlanes in the 70th minute. Both these players made a noticeable difference and with time running out Mallorca missed a sitter. Morlanes came out of a scrum of players with the ball at his feet and his inch-perfect through ball fell into the path of Sergi Darder. He was one-on-one with the Cadiz ’keeper and his poked shot smacked against the post.
Then the man for the big occasion, Abdon Prats, came on in the 83rd minute, which was way too late for him to have any impact. He should have been introduced much earlier and coach Aguirre was given pelters on social media for not going for a winner, instead he played his ultra defensive line-up which nearly backfired.
A point was hardly enough for Cadiz as their fans looked desolate when the final whistle blew. As for Mallorca, we move another step further to safety. The game wasn’t a good watch and, as I anticipated, was a war of attrition between two poor teams.
Next up for Mallorca are At. Madrid in the Son Moix on Saturday, May 4 at 9pm. Los Colchoneros have been poor away from home this season and Mallorca could just pull off a surprise.