A paltry, shell-shocked crowd of 15,457 traipsed out of the Son Moix just after 4.15 on Saturday afternoon, scratching their heads in disbelief after Mallorca threw away a two-goal lead against fellow strugglers Osasuna.
It was a dire first half, an affront to football, our defence spending most of the time with endless passes between centre backs and full backs, then passing the ball back to our stand-in goalkeeper Lucas Bergström. He looked completely out of his depth, kicking the ball out of play many times with his overhit clearances. As half time approached, the home crowd momentarily woke up when a Darder shot went close. But the first half finished 0-0 with fans hoping that things could only get better.
Things did get better for Mallorca in the second half, and just after the hour mark, Virgili (who was a real live wire which the Osasuna defence couldn’t handle) broke away. At the end of a flick-on, he was tugged down by Boyomo, and Spain’s most unpopular referee, Gil Manzano, pointed to the spot. Muriqi fired home into the top righthand corner and at long last the stalemate was broken.
Four minutes later, Mallorca doubled their lead. Virgili went on another breakaway and laid on a beautifully judged pass to Muriqi, who made room for himself finding the bottom lefthand corner with a clinical right-foot shot, with trademark deadliness. After that 66th minute goal, the game we all thought was over, wasn’t. Mallorca showed once again that they are past masters at soaring from the heights of success to the depths of despair.
What should have been a relaxed finish turned into a white-knuckle ride. Nerves took over and Mallorca let in two late goals, the first from a cleverly worked free kick and the second in the 92nd minute when a bout of pinball and head-tennis inside the box culminated in Boyomo executing an overhead kick making it 2-2.
That goal saw a mass exodus of gutted fans. If Mallorca had managed more fortitude in the latter minutes of the game, we would have provisionally moved within two points of the top eight but instead we now risk entering December inside the bottom three alongside Osasuna.
I wonder if Real Mallorca have the mental resilience to stay in La Liga. On Saturday’s capitulation in the second half, I’m not so sure. They now have to regroup for the trip to Soria on Tuesday night when they play fourth division Numancia in the Copa del Rey. Then on Friday we travel to play bottom side Oviedo. Coach Arrasate has major problems with the mentality of this Mallorca team. We need more players with the resilience of Jan Virgili and Vedat Muriqi, both of whom were exceptional on Saturday afternoon.