Matchday 10 Review
- Callum McIlwaine
- Oct 26, 2024
- 6 min read
RCD Mallorca Vs. Ray Vallecano
Estadi Mallorca Son Moix, 20 October 2024
Final Score: RCD Mallorca 1 - 0 Rayo Vallecano
We kicked off matchday 10 with a clash of 8th place Mallorca and 9th place Rayo Vallecano, a game of two sides that have started well this season and who are both gunning for the European places in the league, the chance for 6th place was up here so both teams were going to go for it. As we kicked off, Mallorca stated their intent instantly, a ball played the length of the pitch by keeper Greif to target man Muriqi who knocks the ball up to the Navarro on the run, he takes it on the volley and strikes the frame of the goal. Not only would that have been a great goal, it might have been the best goal of the month after that move, unlucky miss by the Mallorca forward. This was the theme of the first opening 10 minutes, Mallorca absolutely dominating the attacking opportunities. Mojica and Muriqi were a good partnership for the home side as well, swinging in balls from wide and deep positions for the striker to get a head on, one ended up striking the ground and flying narrowly over the crossbar, Muriqi asking questions there. Rayo managed the get a shot on goal when Alvaro played a cross to the penalty spot, Camella managed to get on the end of it but his shot was deflected for a corner for the away side. The next bit of action came around the 20 minute mark when Batalla, who has had a solid half in goal so far, spilled a cross from a freekick into the box, he managed to recover to save the resulting follow up shot and the ball went out for a corner for Mallorca, this, besides the volley in the first minute, was the first real excitement of the half. Following this, the game started to open up, we had around 10 minutes of good attacking opportunities but unfortunately, no end product at all - first with De Frutos who shoots, wide, then Larin who skies his effort followed by another skied effort by Rayo's Palazon. Lots of chances but no real quality, Larin had another effort stopped by the advancing Batalla in the Rayo goal who comes off his line well to smother the oncoming attacking opportunity. Mallorca had pretty much had control of the whole match up to this point but Rayo decided this was their time to start their offensive movements properly. First with Alvaro finding Gumbau in the Mallorca penalty area, he hits the shot first time but ends up being quite tame and Greif handles it easily, minutes later, a cleared ball up the line finds De Frutos who manages to get by one, and sends a cross into the middle of the box again, this time Camello gets on to the effort but strikes high and again, over the bar. This barrage of attacks was finished by Unai Lopez's cross to De Frutos who once again, fires wide. This is becoming a bit of a recurring theme in this game. We were then met with a rather odd moment - the game had stopped for a VAR check, which was looking for a handball presumably, the referee ended up dismissing the call and the match camera panned to the bench who showed some of the Rayo players using a mobile phone to show the 4th assistant the replay, that's a new one at the elite level for me at least! The final action of the half saw Maffeo launch in another long throw, like he's been doing all match so far, it landed on Navarro's head who flicked it on to Costa, he tried to round the keeper but Batalla but he is stopped by the Rayo keeper, the resulting effort ends up in the side netting, last final bit of excitement there! That was it for the first half, in review - Mallorca are going for this one and Rayo seem to be content in sitting back and catching on the counter, finishing and the final touches have been poor for both sides but the Mallorca forward line are the busier of the two, here's hoping the second half brings a goal!
We kicked off the second half the exact same way we started the first, Navarro seemingly running through half of the Rayo team before playing Larin through, he tries the outswinging effort but the diving Batalla was equal to it, great start from the home side! Minutes after this, Batalla manages to deflect the cross from Larin, after Mojica's effort, the ball pinballs around the box and lands with Darder who see's his effort deflected for a corner. After this corner, the ball ends again with Mojica who plays the pass through to Larin who lays off for the oncoming Darder, who, like a lot of strikers in this game, skies the effort. The frustrations of the team were led by Costa who was actually in a slightly better position for the strike but Larin chose to lay off the wrong team mate. For the following 10 minutes, the game started to get a bit tense, the home crowd started to seem a little anxious that this was going to end 0-0 today with some of the lack of quality in front of goal. The game seemed to be relaxing into a Sunday afternoons tempo until Batalla was called into action once again to deny Valjent's flicked on header that was heading in top corner, a great save from the Rayo goalkeeper, who's had a busy match so far. We had a good bit of movement by Muriqi as Maffeo links up with him, he tries to take it round Batalla in goal but ends up driving himself too far wide, the resulting shot/cross ends up with a Rayo player and is cleared of any danger. For the Rayo fans, Ciss and De Frutos tried to take it upon themselves to take their team ahead in this match, again though, the shot is weak and the finishing is poor, Greif deals with it well and easily. This run of poor finishing is finally ended when Muriqi rises to a cross in from the corner, he is unmarked at the near post and headers the ball into the back of the net, Batalla could do nothing about this, the unorganised Rayo defensive line has led to their downfall here and Muriqi, who has been dangerous all afternoon, gets his goal that he always gets against Rayo. 1 - 0 to the home side and finally someone broke the deadlock, it did feel like it was always going to be Mallorca to do it as well. 15 minutes to go and the game has some life to it, Maffeo wants in on the action and runs down the wing taking on Balliu and getting past the Rayo defender, he runs towards goal but has no one to pass to, so he strikes against Batalla who keeps it out for another corner. As we entered the final 10 minutes of normal time, Rayo turned up the heat (where has this been all match?) Every second ball, every cross, every recovery is made by a player in white, it was actually quite impressive to see that they had this in the tank still, Balliu whips in a cross from a really deep position and Greif claims and tries to slow down the tempo of the match for his team. 5 minutes after this, from the free kick, James Rodriguez crosses into the busy Mallorca box, again, Greif claims the ball and makes the tempo his once again. Into stoppage time now, Batalla sends the ball forward to Valentin, his header lands with Raillo who, in the calmest manner, taps the ball back to his goalkeeper Greif to end that attack, calm as you like from the Mallorca man. We were graced with one final toss of the coin, when Mallorca actually end up scoring once again! Here's the play: Prats to Rodriguez, Rodriguez back to Prats, Prats through to Sanchez who chips the ball over the goalkeeper and Valentin tries to clear only to see the ball end up in the roof of the net. An interesting move but has led to Mallorca doubling their lead...or so we thought. VAR intervenes with proof that Rodriguez was in fact offside in the build up. Back to 1 - 0 for the final seconds of the game. That was the final drama of this rather tame match up, it was always going to be tense but both teams need to look at their finishing for sure. Even with goal disallowed, the result stays the same and Mallorca move up to 6th place while Rayo drop a place to 10th at the end of the matchday.
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