Real Mallorca Cup Final dress rehearsal ends in a draw

Despite their dismal away record of just one win in 14 league games, Real Mallorca were well worth a point in this goalless draw against Valencia on a rainy night in the Mestalla. As the score suggests, this game wasn’t for the purists, but Mallorca left Valencia with good feelings and had an excellent workout with the Cup final coming up next Saturday.

After a scrappy start, the game had its first controversial moment on the half hour mark. A shot by Valencia’s Diego Lopez crashed into the body of Omar Mascarell and the referee awarded a penalty. It looked a soft decision as Martorell’s hand was close to his body and after VAR consultation the penalty was annulled. In this incident, Mascarell went down and after treatment went off holding his chest. It now looks doubtful if he’ll play in the final.

Coach Aguirre picked our Cup goalkeeper, Dominik Greif, and the lanky Slovakian played an absolute blinder making two stunning saves.

Once again our defence were magnificent, with Copete having a stand-out game. The coach left regular starters Raillo and Dani Rodriguez on the bench, making them fresh to start in Seville. Also coming on in the second half was Antonio Sanchez who’s just put pen to paper on a new three-year contract. Mallorca played like next Saturday’s final didn’t exist and refused to hold back on tackling, sending out a message to Athletic Club that Mallorca were ready for everything and anything that the Basques will throw at us in La Cartuja.

After this draw, Mallorca extended their cushion over the relegation zone to six points. Upfront our strikers never got much service and Muriqi looked off the pace after his third game in nine days. Canadian International Larin, back from playing in Texas, also looked jaded and came off at half time. Larin again managed to get his name in the referee’s book for backchat. A word about our new loan signing from Torino, Nemanja Radonjic, who had a new minutes near the end – he looks like a real box of tricks and he nearly scored after a bit of twinkle-toed jiggery-pokery. He surely must have a part to play next Saturday.