Athletic loses against Mallorca and says goodbye to its good streak

Athletic Club lost 3-2 against Mallorca this Monday the match corresponding to the 24th day of LaLiga Santander. The defeat breaks the good streak of a red-and-white team that missed a great opportunity to get closer to the European positions.

It was Athletic who dominated in the first minutes. Zarraga gave the first warning with a shot from outside the area that went high over the crossbar. In the 14th minute, the Mallorca goalkeeper Sergio Rico cleared badly, the ball reached Sancet, who gave it to Raúl García and the Navarrese finished off badly, wasting a clear scoring opportunity. Later, Mallorca began to command, and a clear penalty committed by Unai Nuñez on Maffeo it was converted by Salva Sevilla (1-0).

The conceded goal hurt Athletic. Mallorca came up and Ángel Rodríguez made it 2-0 after scoring the second goal taking advantage of a ball that Muriqi had fought in the area.

Marcelino García Toral, coach of Athletic Club, made changes at the restart: Berenguer replaced Unai Núñez and Berchiche replaced Dani García. The rojiblancos came out with more ambition in the second half. However, the first occasion was for Mallorca, although Unai Simón avoided the home team’s goal by clearing an Olympic goal attempt by Salva Sevilla. Later, the Basque team prevailed, and in the 59th minute they closed the gap by Raul Garcia (2-1); Zarraga opened for Yuri, who put the ball in the area, and Raúl García’s shot beat Sergio Rico.

It took two minutes for Athletic to score the second goal; Muniain took a corner, and Álex Berenguer finished off inside the small area to put the tie at two (2-2).

After the draw, neither team was able to generate scoring chances. However, Athletic was not fine in defensive tasks in the 89th minute, Muriqi missed the long ball inside the area, Kubo shot, and the ball entered the goal defended by Unai Simón (3-2) after hitting the post and the goalkeeper’s back.

In the extension, Athletic was not able to generate danger in the Mallorca area and came back empty-handed.

Data sheet:

3-Majorca: Sergio Rich; Maffeo, Raíllo, Valjent, Oliván; Take Kubo, Ruiz de Galarreta, Salva Sevilla (Antonio Sánchez, min. 64), Dani Rodríguez; Angel (Kang-in Lee, min. 73) and Muriqi.

2-Athletic Club: Unai Simon; Lekue, Unai Nuñez (Berenguer, min. 46), Vivian, Balenziaga; Zarraga, Vesga (Petxarromán, min. 72), Dani García (Berchiche, min. 46), Muniain; Raúl García (Iñaki Williams, min. 72) and Sancet (Villalibre, min. 72).

Goals: 1-0, min. 21: Save Sevilla, from a penalty; 2-0, min. 29: Angel Rodriguez; 2-1, min. 59: Raul Garcia; 2-2 min. 61: Alex Berenguer; 3-2, min. 88: Take Kubo.

Referee: Diaz de Mera (C. Castilian-Manchego). He admonished Oliván (min. 12), Ángel (min. 72), Manolo Reina (min. 74, on the bench), Raíllo (min. 79), Kubo (min. 88) from Mallorca; Zarraga (min. 52), Muniain (min. 57), Berchiche (min. 79) from Athletic.