First Division | Elche wins in Mallorca and allows themselves to dream

It was, and ended up being, a party-trap, a term that Aguirre said he did not know. After the disappointment before the colista, the ‘Vasco’ already knows what he is. He has already suffered it in his own flesh; he also ran into the VAR in a fast-paced finish. The referee canceled a goal by Vedat Muriqi in the last play of the match by a slap from Pablo Maffeo to Raúl Guti.

Everyone expected a win in Son Moix. A team that had only achieved one win in 23 games, distanced by 15 points from permanence, decimated by the loss of important players in their ranks, should not be a careful rival. But football has no logic. The Verdiblanco team caught on for 96 minutes at the level of a team that refuses to be defeated before its time. His second victory of the season has a lot of merit because he got it in a very difficult field.

Mallorca, however, came out on the field with great force and already in the first minute came dangerously on two occasions led by Tino Kadewere and Pablo Maffeo.

Elche dodged the stormy start of their rival as best they could and, little by little, was leveling the actions. The visiting defense was not intimidated by the bulk of ‘Pirate’ Kadewere or the speed of Zimbabwean Tino Kadewere. He responded with success to each attempt by the vermillions to open the scoring, and when he didn’t, he had luck on his side, as in the 23rd minute, when Franco-Angolan Randy Nteka cleared a point-blank shot by Dani Rodríguez on the same goal line. It was the best and only clear opportunity for the Mallorcan players in the first half. Aguirre’s players had the ball, but not clearly enough to worry goalkeeper Edgard Badía.

Things didn’t go any better for the Majorcan players at the restart either. Elche, with Tete Morente replacing Carmona, who had seen a yellow card, attacked first and was able to open the scoring through Fidel. The solution that Aguirre sought was to seat Kadewere and put the Mallorcan Abdón Prats in his place, an idol of the local fans but who does not usually have many minutes.

Dani Rodríguez touched the goal again with a spectacular left-footed shot on the half turn. Lucas Boyé responded with a shot next to the stick that Rajkovic cleared. Ponce had the goal (min. 81), but missed in a one-on-one with Rajkovic. The one who did not fail, shortly after, was Lucas Boyé who scored ahead of the entire Majorcan defense. The Argentine has taken the measure of the field of play of the vermilions. Last season he scored both goals in the tie (2-2) against Mallorca.

The ending was exciting, with the referee Munuera Montero disallowing a goal for Muriqi in injury time due to a slap from Pablo Maffeo to Raúl Guti in the previous play. That’s where Mallorca’s winning streak ended against an Elche team that leaves Son Moix very strengthened in its goal of fighting until the end to avoid relegation.