After a week when the 2026 Cannes Film Festival started – some of the “outsiders” tipped to win the prestigious Palme D’Or prize are “Harry Potter and the Rubber Clad Dominatrix,” “Wallace and Gromit – the Plasticine Meltdown” and “Bambi – The Venison Years”! – Real Mallorca, deep in a relegation dogfight, face a resurgent Levante in their Estadio Ciutat de Valencia on Sunday night at 7pm. There’s hardly any time for recuperation between matches as we enter the final stages of the season.
At the time of this Fan’s View being submitted (Wednesday night), the result of the away game is Getafe 3 – Mallorca 1, a disappointing setback, and a report is available separately on the Bulletin’s website.
Levante looked dead and buried a few games ago but have enjoyed a Lazarus type resurrection. They have given a huge boost to their La Liga survival hopes, after ending a run of seven win-less top flight away matches with a superb 2-3 victory at Celta Vigo. Sunday night’s game (when most of La Liga kick off at the same time, 7pm) will see Levante’s morale sky high.
The standings in La Liga this season in the relegation zone has been totally bonkers. It’s impossible to make predictions when the unexpected becomes a reality. You win two games in a row and you go from fighting relegation to qualifying for Europe! Mallorca won’t be alone on Sunday night. The supporters clubs have chartered a plane and have asked for more seats to be made available. Several of the Mallorca players look to be carrying injuries so it will be a last-minute decision on the line-up in this HUGE game.
Suffering is a feeling rooted into the DNA of Mallorquinistas. The history of the club has been full of great dramas and this campaign is probably the most nerve-wracking of them all, and not for the faint hearted. There’s no question Real Mallorca’s performances have improved dramatically and the arrival of new Argentinian coach Martin Demichelis has transformed the team.
After Sunday’s game we reach the final of what’s been a bang average season for Real Mallorca with a home game against an already relegated Oviedo. Once again all the games that Saturday (May 23) will kick off at the same time of 9pm. As always, much will depend on Vedat Muriqi. The Kosovan striker has become the emotional and attacking heartbeat of this Mallorca side and he’s carried the team in crucial moments. He must surely be running near empty by now. He’s indispensable and his only back-up on the bench is Abdon Prats, as Leeds United loanee Mateo Joseph is unavailable because of cruciate ligament problems. Muriqi is having a record-breaking year despite the fact that he’s probably now physically knackered after accumulating nearly 3,000 minutes of playing time.
The key on Sunday at Levante is to survive the early pressure. They have scored some spectacular long-range goals recently and never lie down. For Mallorca fans this is the kind of match that defines survival campaigns: ugly, tense, emotional but potentially massive. A Mallorca win would feel enormous.
There was a real “heart in mouth” moment in last Sunday’s Villareal game. One of their players went down with cramp (allegedly!) on the edge of the centre circle in Mallorca’s half. With play going on down the other end, our goalkeeper Leo Roman raced from his goal to come to the assistance of the Villareal player who was cramping up. Fortunately the incident didn’t cause too many problems but if Villareal had broken away and had a counterattack, it would have been a different scenario.
Roman’s one of those goalkeepers who comes way out of his goal when Mallorca are on the attack down the other end. Just a few games ago in Son Moix he was actually standing inside the centre circle! The Ibiza-born goalkeeper is a great shot stopper but tends to alternate between game saving performances and the occasional avoidable error. His weaknesses have been exposed on aerial balls. However this hasn’t prevented Spain’s national coach Luis de la Fuente from picking him as one of six goalkeepers in a preliminary list of 55 players for the World Cup.
The reality is that it’s highly unlikely Roman will be called up for this Summer’s World Cup, but the fact that he’s on the preliminary list and being mentioned as a potential future player for the national team is already a very good sign for him. De la Fuente himself knows Roman very well as he’s played for the Under 21 national team. A few weeks ago Radio Marca revealed that Atletico Madrid are closely monitoring his career in what would be a huge step up in quality for the 25 year old.
AND FINALLY, a farmer drove to a neighbour’s farmhouse and knocked on the door. He enquired to the nine-year-old boy who opened it if his mother or father were at home. The boy told the farmer “No, they went to town with my brother Howard.” The farmer stood there for a moment then the young boy offered “I know where all the tools are, if you want to borrow any? Or can I give Dad a message?” “Well,” said the farmer uncomfortably, “I really wanted to talk to your father. It’s about your brother Howard getting my daughter Lola pregnant.” The boy thought for a moment. “You’ll have to talk to Dad about that, but I do know he charges 500 quid for the bull and 50 for the pig. I don’t know how much he charges for Howard!”