Villarreal 2 - Real Mallorca 1
Third top Villareal had a hard-fought 2-1 win on Saturday night against a Mallorca side who played a great match but just couldn’t compete with Villareal’s quality substitutions especially towards the end. The match didn’t start well for Mallorca, when their ex-player Gerard Moreno put the home side ahead after just six minutes. However, Mallorca’s reaction was swift. Virgili seized on a Villareal slack pass, worked the ball to Pablo Torre, then on to Samu Costa, who found the bottom lefthand corner from a tight angle. He scored an identical goal a month ago against Athletic Club.
Villareal had won five and drawn one of their six home games and Mallorca needed to be close to perfection to get anything from this game. They came close through Sanchez on the stroke of half time but in the second period we struggled to impose ourselves as much as we did in the first. With time marching on, Villareal’s coach Marcelino brought on some quality substitutes which he was holding back for their Champions League game away at Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night.
In the 72nd minute Villareal’s Georgian striker Mikautadze nearly scored, but somehow Bergström in the Mallorca goal saved the effort with his right foot. The 6ft 10in lanky Finnish goalkeeper had another shaky game. His clearances especially from the foot were all over the place and he slipped several times while kicking the ball out.
In the 83rd minute Villareal’s Canadian player Oluwaseyi capitalised on a bad mistake from our captain Antonio Raillo and back-heeled the winning goal into an empty net. Mallorca didn’t deserve to lose but the home side substitutions near the end were the real game changers.
Mallorca ran out of time and lost a point they had worked for brilliantly over 83 minutes only to let it slip away on a freezing night in Castellon. Mallorca fell to their fifth league defeat in six away games this season and are now languishing in 16th place.
Next Saturday at 2pm we play Osasuna in Son Moix. They are one point behind us in 17th place and this game is a potential relegation six pointer.