Villarreal 4-0 RCD Mallorca
After a worrying stretch of form for Villarreal, Marcelino Garcia Toral’s side got back to form on Monday night against RCD Mallroca, in a game which was over before the half-hour mark.
Both sides started off tentatively, with Villarreal making more inroads than the visitors. It did not take long for them to profit from their added ambition though, as a corner from the left was powered home by central defender Logan Costa to give Villarreal the lead. That set in motion a carrousel of Villarreal players that dizzied Los Bermellones.
Just four minutes later, Villarreal nabbed the ball in their own half, but wasted no time in releasing Alex Baena through the middle of the pitch, with acres to gallop into. Driving forward, Baena fed left-back Sergi Cardona out wide, and showed all the desire necessary to get into the box and on the end of Cardona’s precise ball between defence and goalkeeper.
A shellshocked Mallorca could not shock themselves back into action though, and it was only two minutes later that Villarreal had a third. Dani Parejo was the instigator of this attack, and Cardona was again key to the supply chain. This time when Cardona’s ball from the left came in, Thierno Barry touched it back to the edge of the box, and Parejo fired it back where it came from, low into the left corner to make it three goals to nil.
By the 28th minute, it was definitively settled. Again Cardona was involved, and again Jagoba Arrasate’s side could not shut down the left side, with his ball this time precisely measured to the back post for Yeremy Pino to thump the ball in for a fourth goal, and his first since returning from an ACL injury.
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The game never really recovered from such a ruthless sequence, and while RCD Mallorca stemmed that flow of attacks, Dominik Greif was forced into two more good saves in the second half. Arrasate made four changes at the break, and saw a more competitive Mallorca, but little more than that. Their best chance came through a Vedat Muriqi header that went wide of the mark. Villarreal put together some more neat pieces of play, but none with liquid motion of their three first-half moves that finished the game.
Marcelino’s side pick up a first clean sheet in two months, and a first win in a month, which keeps them fifth and reduces the gap to Athletic Club back down to sixth. Mallorca could have replaced them both in terms of points and position with a win, but Arrasate will be working his side harder than he has all season – his side stay sixth, two points ahead of Real Sociedad and three behind their hosts in Castellon.
