Real Mallorca 0 – Atlético Madrid 1
A fifth-minute goal out of nowhere from Atletico’s youngster Rodrigo Riquelme was all that was required to beat a poor Mallorca side on Saturday night. The highlight of this game was in the first half when a pitch invader brandishing an anti bullfighting banner was finally caught by a posse of security guards. The young scallywag then reappeared in the new stand later on, again being chased by guys in hi viz jackets. Another highlight was when bored-rigid fans were making paper aeroplanes and launching them into fans sitting at pitch level. The biggest cheer went up when one paper plane actually made it onto the pitch!
A win for Atleti’s boss Cholo Simeone’s boys should see them significantly boost their hopes for a money-spinning fourth place in next season’s Champions League. With Bilbao beating Getafe 2-0 on Friday night, it was imperative that “Los Colchoneros” secured all three points by any means possible. Mallorca had beaten Atleti in their last two visits to Palma but there was never a time on Saturday night when we even got close to doing the same again.
As the game started all 20,519 were in full voice and it was such a shame after a hearty rendition of the club songs that the game was one of the poorest seen in the Son Moix for a long time. Atleti are well known as being a side who have successfully “parked the bus” when they go ahead and Mallorca hadn’t got a clue how to penetrate the visitors’ resolute back five.
Surprisingly our coach Javier Aguirre started with two strikers, Abdon and Muriqi, but unfortunately neither of them made even the slightest impression on the Atletico defence. As the first half horror show ground to a halt, we looked sadly lacking against the much more skilful and quicker Madrid side who had two Argentinian World Cup winners in their midst.
In the second half, Aguirre tried all kinds of permutations to no avail, and it was nights like this that got Mallorquinistas’ tongues wagging as to whether our 65-year-old Mexican coach should continue next season. That’s now six games we’ve played without a win. Fortunately, there are only four games left to play and barring upsets, permanence will come sooner than later. At times on Saturday night, Mallorca looked a spent force as an excellent referee, Alberola Rojas, put us out of our misery by only adding five minutes extra time. Cadiz, six points below us in third-bottom place, don’t look like they’ll avoid the drop and we have another home game against mid-table strugglers Las Palmas next Saturday at 2pm.
Saturday night’s game wasn’t for neutral spectators but Simeone won’t care as he’s in the results business and continues to give new meaning to the football phrase “park the bus.”