Nastasic celebrates the equaliser. | Carlos Gil-Roig

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Alaves 1- Real Mallorca 1

RCD Mallorca’s Serbian centre back Matija Nastasic scrambled home a bouncing ball in the 87th minute to give the Palma side a point they thoroughly deserved away at Alaves on Saturday evening.

In the first half Mallorca played their best 45 minutes of the season on the road and if it wasn’t for poor finishing, they would have gone in at the break ahead. Coach Aguirre kept Dani Rodriguez and Antonio Sanchez on the bench with a view to protecting these two important players for our cup semi-final on Tuesday night. However, Rodriguez came on near the end and had a part to play in Nastasic’s late equaliser. Two players stood out for Mallorca, Manu Morlanes and new on-loan signing from Torino, Nemanja Radonjic. He looks a bit rough round the edges but after a bit more shooting practice, he’ll definitely be an integral part of the team and could well be the surprise packet on Tuesday night.

In the second half, Aguirre made changes which affected our performance, and it was no surprise when Alaves broke the deadlock in the 76th minute. Substitute Benavidez headed home from a corner and it looked like Mallorca had been robbed of at least a point. Despite us now being seven points from the relegation zone, Mallorca have failed to win four of their last five games and we’ve conceded in all our La Liga games since December 17 when we drew 0-0 with Almeria.

Everything is now geared up for Tuesday’s cup semi-final against Real Sociedad. Their form has imploded of late but it’s a cup match with everything to play for. 800 Mallorca fans will make the trip north to see if the islanders can make it to their fourth cup final. Aguirre has tried to hide the reality of Tuesday’s game, saying our league survival is paramount, but with three days to go, excitement is reaching fever point. Visca Mallorca !