Goals from Bernardo Espinosa and Valentín Castellanos saw Vedat Muriqi’s penalty get cancelled out as we fell to a 2-1 defeat against Girona FC at the Estadio de Montilivi.
Javier Aguirre continued to rotate his side during a hectic run of fixtures as Antonio Sanchez was handed a start and Manu Morlanes continued his run in the first team.
It was the former who had the game’s first real chance when he latched onto a loose ball outside the box, took a touch and then rattled the post from distance in the 21st minute.
Castellanos later tested Predrag Rajkovic on the half-hour mark, but it was a straightforward save for our stopper.
Bernardo Espinosa gave the hosts the lead just moments before the break when he managed to react first to a second ball and volleyed into the roof of the net as we headed into the dressing room a goal down.
We thought we had levelled in the 57th minute when Kang-In Lee had slipped Muriqi through on goal, but a VAR review adjudged the striker to have been offside by a matter of inches before he found the back of the net.
We continued to press for an equaliser as Dani Rodríguez came close with a stinging effort which was saved.
We got our reward for relentless pressure in the 80th minute when Muriqi held his nerve from the penalty spot to equalise matters having been hauled down in the box.
Our joy was to be short lived as Castellanos scored the deciding goal in the 84th minute and saw us slip to a 2-1 loss.
RCD Mallorca: Rajkovic, A. Sánchez, Hadzikadunic (Dani Rodríguez,65’), Valjent, Copete, Jaume Costa (Augustinsson,71’); Morlanes (Grenier,85’), Ruiz de Galarreta, Kang In Lee, Amath (Ángel,85’); Muriqi.
Girona FC: Gazzaniga; Arnau Martínez, Bernardo, Santi Bueno, Miguel Gutiérrez (Javi Hernández, 72’); Oriol Romeu, Iván Martín (Couto, 90’), Tsygankov (Callens,90’); Reinier (Artero, 60’), Rodrigo Riquelme, Taty Castellanos (Stuani, 90’).
