Sporting de Gijon 2 : 3 Mallorca - Mallorca claim crucial victory

Posted Wednesday, March 21, 2012 by PA

Real Mallorca took another big step towards Primera Division survival and left opponents Sporting Gijon further in the relegation mire after edging a hard-fought match 3-2 at El Molinon.

Mallorca twice took the lead through Jose Carlos Nunes and an own goal from Pedro Orfila, but were pegged back both times through goals from Adrian Colunga and Alberto Botia.

However, Sporting could not find a third equaliser to cancel out Alvaro Gimenez's 77th-minute strike as Mallorca took the spoils.

The victory lifted the Balearic Island side 12 points above the bottom three and now within sight of safety, but Sporting remain stuck in the bottom two following their 16th defeat of the season.

Mallorca came into the match in buoyant mood following their 2-1 home win over Atletico Madrid at the weekend, but they found themselves on the back foot for most of the opening half hour with Colunga being denied by Dudu Aouate while Colunga again, Formose Mendy, Oscar Trejo, Alejandro Galvez and Roberto Canella all tried their luck without hitting the target.

The visitors then showed their hosts how it should be done in the 30th minute as they took the lead.

The Sporting defence were unable to clear Jose Luis Marti's corner and Nunes made them pay by slotting in from 12 yards out.

The home side responded well from that setback though and, after Botia had seen a header superbly parried by Aouate, they drew level in the 38th minute when Colunga got on the end of Nacho Cases' pass and slipped the ball over Aouate to make it 1-1.

That is the way the first half finished, but Mallorca were back in front within a minute of the restart when Orfila inadvertently turned the ball into his own net following a shot by Emilio Nsue.

Sporting could hardly have had a worse start to the period, but they battled back again and Barral drew another parry out of Aouate before Botia made it 2-2 in the 66th minute from close range.

The home side would have hoped to go on and take the points from there, but they found themselves trailing again with 13 minutes left - and this time there was no way back for Javier Clemente's men.

Superb play from Tomer Hemed created the opening for Alvaro and he slotted home to give Mallorca an invaluable win.