Despite Villarreal being dominant early doors, the “Yellow Submarine” looked well and truly sunk in a spectacular two minutes of footballing madness. In the 20th minute the ex Liverpool ’keeper Pepe Reina tried to flick the ball clear in the six yard box; quick as a flash Muriqi showed great awareness, passing to Kadewere who scored his first La Liga goal, 1-0. Two minutes later Villarreal player Trigueros lost it completely as he thumped Dani Rodriguez across the “chops” off the ball, in response to a foul from Dani seconds earlier, and was shown a straight red. Just before half time Villarreal were gifted an easy equaliser. The normally reliable Mallorca captain Antonio Raillo failed to clear a pass from Gio Gonzalez and “El Comandante” Morales nipped in to make it 1-1. That goal shocked and silenced the 14,000 crowd, and was the first our goalkeeper Pedrag Rajkovic had conceded at home since October 28 last year. Mallorca quickly responded with a well-worked goal. A brilliant hanging cross from Maffeo saw Dani Rodriguez bullet home a header to make it 2-1.
The second half was only five minutes old when another defensive mistake, this time from Copete, was punished by Chukwueze, 2-2. Mallorca didn’t hesitate to retaliate. Header number two from a resurgent Dani Rodriguez made it 3-2. It was party time in the Son Moix. Muriqi then scored his first goal in La Liga this year and his ninth of the season, 4-2. He looked a different player with Kadewere playing more or less alongside him. It’s true we played against ten men for a large part of the game but we knew how to react after two bad defensive mistakes.
This was a wonderful evening of drama in a game which had a bit of everything, six goals, a sending off and chances galore. Mallorca made it five home wins in a row to consolidate their mid table position with 31 points.
It was Dani Rodriguez who stole the show with (unusually for him) two great headers and the ecstatic Son Moix faithful rose as a man, woman and child to give him a well-deserved standing ovation at the end.
Villarreal joined other victims such as Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid in finding that travelling to the island involves playing in one of the most intimidating stadiums in La Liga. Son Moix has become a fortress.
Mallorca now head for Barcelona to play Espanyol next Saturday at 2pm. If this home form continues, it would be nice to dream of a European qualification for the first time since 2003/04.
No comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
Currently there are no comments.