Espanyol 3 - Real Mallorca 2
In a game of twists and turns, Real Mallorca suffered another cruel defeat against their “nemesis” side Espanyol on Monday night. That’s now 17 straight defeats we’ve suffered in their Cornella stadium in a game we should have won after the home side were reduced to ten men after 46 minutes.
Espanyol took the lead in the 20th minute as we failed to clear our defensive lines allowing Milla to steal in and open the scoring. Fifteen minutes later calamity for our goalkeeper Leo Roman, an innocuous looking cross saw him hopelessly flapping at thin air with Espanyol striker Fernandez at the back post to unwrap the gift, 2-0.
Espanyol and the almost-full stadium were by now in raptures but just before half time a born-again Vedat Muriqi, who had been a thorn in the home defence, scored from the penalty spot to get us back into a “game on” scenario. With the referee, Hernandez Hernandez (so good they named him twice) about to blow for half time, Espanyol’s Per Milla was shown a straight red card for protesting a foul, telling the referee that he was terrible (or words to that effect!).
Our coach Jagoba Arrasate, after a turbulent week (which saw Dani Rodriguez sent to the naughty step without pay), couldn’t have imagined in his wildest dreams after the first half that Mallorca were still in the game.
With just 25 minutes left, a deft cross from Sergi Darder saw Muriqi out-muscle the Espanyol defence to plant an excellent header into the far corner off the post, 2-2. On Monday night we saw the “old” Muriqi and hopefully we will see a lot more of the same in this long season.
Somehow the ten-man Espanyol took a match-winning lead with time running out. Ex-Blackburn Rovers player Dolan was allegedly pushed (ever so slightly) in the area by Raillo, and veteran substitute Kiki Garcia’s penalty squirmed into the bottom corner, despite Roman nearly pulling off a wonder fingertip save.
SUMMING UP: For the first time ever in Fan’s View, thanks to Professor Stephen Baggaley from Genova and his assistant AI, this is what they had to say about the game : “This was a classic case of efficiency against dominance. Espanyol were clinical in front of goal and made the most of their limited chances. Mallorca, despite dictating play, were left ruing their missed opportunities.” My verdict : once again we didn’t know how to finish off a team down to ten men for the second half, when we had the clear advantage.
Up next in Son Moix on Sunday (Sept 21) at 16:15 a resurgent Atletico Madrid are the visitors.