Another frustrating draw 1-1

We got off to a brilliant start when, after some lovely one-touch football, an error by Valencia’s centre back Mosqueras set up captain Dani Rodriguez and he walloped home a beauty in the fifth minute. Once again with Mallorca going ahead early doors, they sat back and let the youthful Valencia side take control. They forced a string of corner kicks in the first half whereas we managed only one just before half time.

Early in the game Mallorca escaped an equaliser when a Pepelu free kick cannoned off the upright with Rajkovic well beaten. After the break, Muriqi saw his spectacular diving header parried away by Valencia’s Georgian goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili and he pulled off another stunning save several minutes later. Mallorca relied on the quick breakaway as we defended with intensity but committed too many fouls. We also showed the visitors too much respect in the second half as we ran out of ideas, In the 74th minute Darder limped off with what looked like a groin injury which could see him out for a few weeks. Bad news for us.

Kyle Larin, our 8 million euro buy from Valladolid, blotted his copy book again near the end. He missed a game-winning sitter against Barcelona in the last minute last week, and on Saturday he missed another golden opportunity. Both sides didn’t want their hard-earned point to slip away and the match petered out into yet another draw for the home side. In the end, Valencia were the team most satisfied with the result. The ball spent more time in the air than on the ground and the referee didn’t help matters, blowing for non-fouls and not blowing for clear fouls. Mallorca get to the international break on 8 points, but only one win from nine games doesn’t make for good reading.

We’re away at Real Sociedad in two weeks, then anti-football and the dirtiest team in La Liga, Getafe, are here on Saturday 28th at 18:30. 17,659 trooped out of the Son Moix very disgruntled as the team strived in vain to satisfy their supporters with a home win.