Real Mallorca 2-0 Osasuna

In a fairly quiet game tonight Mallorca managed to get the three points at the Iberostar Estadi in Spain. Gonzalo Castro scored a penalty for the hosts and Jonathan De Guzman doubled their advantage deep in injury time to send their team to seventh place before the remaining games of this round.

Michael Laudrup had big decisions to make before the game after his defence was ravaged by absences. Star man Dudu Aouate was given leave to celebrate Yom Kippur whilst left-backs Ayoze and Corrales were both ruled out with injury. José Nunes is serving a one match ban after his red card against Sporting Gijón whilst Ratinho has not yet been cleared to play in Spain. This gave chances to Lux and youth defender Kevin whilst Rubén and Cendrós continued their extended runs in the team.

But Mallorca can’t help but wrestle murmurs about how deep their financial troubles are, and it was the advertising that took centre stage at the Iberostar Estadi outshining Osasuna coach José Camacho.

The started with neither team having an advantage in the early minutes although it was Osasuna who came closest to scoring a goal in the first twenty minutes through Walter Pandiani and Juanfran. From there on Mallorca started to pick up momentum and it was not long till the deadlock was broken. Miguel Flaño handballed in the penalty area in the 25th minute and Gonzalo Castro made no mistake from the spot, giving Mallorca the lead.

Osasuna tried to claw back a goal before half-time, but were ultimately unable to do so, despite good efforts by Flaño and Fernando Cavenaghi. And things did not changed much after the break as the game continued to be played at a snail pace with neither side creating anything of note for the second 45 minutes.

There were chances for Emilio Nsue and Pierre Webó for Mallorca with twenty minutes to the final whistle, but the best chance of the after half-time fell to Lolo, whose header from the centre of the box was saved, following a cross from Juanfran.

Mallorca did manage to score a second goal, however. The hosts caught Osasuna on the break and the ball reached man-of-the-match Jonathan De Guzmán near the center of the pitch and the ex-Feyenoord man raced towards goal and slotted past Ricardo, completely ignoring team-mate Michael Pereira.

Following today’s result the hosts are seventh, while the visitors are in the relegation zone. In three days Osasuna host Real Sociedad, while Mallorca visit Athletic Bilbao.

Teams

Real Mallorca (4-4-2): Lux; Cendrós, Rubén, Ramis, Kevin; Nsue, de Guzmán, Martí (c), Castro (Pina 89); Cavenaghi (Webo 66), Víctor (Pereira 77).
Substitutes: Nadal (gk); Martí Crespí; Pereira, Pina, Tejera; Webó, Sergi Enrich.

Goalscorers: Castro 25pen; de Guzmán 90+3.

Osasuna (4-4-2): Ricardo; Nelson, Flaño, Toribio, Monreal; Juanfran, Vadocz, Puñal, Comuñas; Lekic, Pandiani.
Substitutes: Riesgo (gk); Damiá; Soriano, Nekounam, Masoud, Rúper; Arandi.

original article by Goal.com, amendments made by realmallorca.co.uk