Mallorca play out a soporific draw

Real Mallorca have still forgotten what it means to win, despite the fact that they had all three points in the bag in the 80th minute. A penalty by Vedat Muriqi after Japanese flying machine Takuma Asano’s pace had caused problems in the Osasuna defence looked to be enough to end our disastrous goalless start to 2025. However, this Mallorca team at the moment are lacking any kind of confidence and Osasuna’s 95th minute equaliser looked to be coming, and they snatched a point when Boyomo managed to bundle in a goal to break Mallorca’s hearts.

In the first half our defence looked shaky, there was no clarity in midfield and precious little effectiveness in attack. Osasuna arrived at the Son Moix having won just once in 15 visits. The first half was a total snoozefest in what can be described as a typical Monday night game in Spanish football, with our lowest crowd of just over 15,000. Time and time again Mallorca lost or gave away the ball from an attacking position and Osasuna were always a threat, especially down the left flank where the twinkle-toed Brian Zaragoza led our defence a merry dance.

Mallorca winger Robert Navarro was our best player and supplied a great through ball into the path of Muriqi. He latched on to it but allowed the ball to hit his shin, losing control and the chance was missed. That opportunity would have easily been put away by Muriqi last season and at the moment he looks a pale shadow of the player he was 12 months ago. He also is finding it difficult, especially as the supply of decent chances has all but dried up.

A poor referee put us all out of our misery by blowing the half-time whistle after an uninspiring 46 minutes. Surely things would be much better in the second half ? They were, but only just. The game for Mallorca was falling apart and our defence began to creak under continued pressure from the visitors.

Then with time running out it was a case of the Mallorca fans not singing any more. With only a couple of minutes remaining Mallorca looked overwhelmed as Osasuna scrambled their leveller over the line. A cross from the right was poorly dealt with by the Mallorca defence allowing Los Navarros a share of the spoils. Seconds later Mallorca keeper Dominik Greif made a brilliant save to keep the score level. Coach Arrasate has a busy few days on the training ground to prepare his team for another home game against Las Palmas on Sunday at 18:30, which is a definite six-pointer for Mallorca.

In La Liga it’s tight at the top and the bottom, with Mallorca now sharing 31 points and mid-table security with Osasuna, Real Sociedad and Girona all in 10th place.