High-flying Real Mallorca stunned Valencia at the Iberostar Stadium with a 2-0 victory in Sunday’s early kick-off.
Victor Casadesus [pictured] got the hosts off to a flier when he took advantage of Tomer Hemed’s lay-back from inside the box after just eight minutes to beat Diego Alves, who got a hand to the ball but could not prevent it entering the net.
Roberto Soldado had a chance to level for the visitors on 15 minutes but his effort was well saved by Dudu Aouate, while Tino Costa saw a shot diverted just short of the half-hour mark as Los Che continued to press.
Mauricio Pellegrino’s men came even closer on 32 minutes when Nelson Valdez’s header from a Tino Costa cross rattled the woodwork.
However, despite dominating much of the opening 45 minutes Valencia went in at the break trailing to Casadesus’ early strike.
Ten minutes after the restart Mallorca boss Joaquin Caparros made a double change, bringing on Alejandro Alfaro and Javier Arizmendi for Michael Pereira and Tomer Hemed.
It was a move that paid instant dividends as one minute later Arizmendi doubled the Islanders’ advantage when he got on the end of Casadesus’ flick on to beat Alves with his first touch of the ball.
Tino Costa, involved in most of the chances Valencia were creating, almost reduced the arrears but his shot flew into the face of Anderson Conceicao, before Soldado saw a good effort turned away by Aouate.
Nonetheless, although Valencia pressed right up the final whistle, they found Israeli international Aouate in fine form between the sticks and went down to their second 2-0 reverse of the week after the Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich.
Real Mallorca 2-0 Valencia
Scorers: Casadesus 8 (M), Arizmendi 56 (M)
Real Mallorca: Aouate; Ximo, Geromel, Conceicao, Antonio Lopez; Javi Marquez (Victor 20), Pina; Nsue, Pereira (Alfaro 55); Víctor Casadesus, Hemed (Arizmendi 55).
Valencia: Alves; Pereira (Barragan 80), Rami, Víctor Ruiz, Cissokho; Feghouli, Tino Costa, Dani Parejo (Jonas 68), Viera; Valdez (Guardado 80), Soldado.
Ref: Alvarez Izquierdo
