FCBARCELONA.CAT

04.02.2009 11:04

Mallorca's second visit of 2009

Jesús Carrillo

It was little more than a month ago that Barça last met Mallorca. That was league game number 17 on January 3, 2009, and the home side won 3-1.

Only four league games and two rounds of the cup have passed, and Barça face the islanders once again. 33 days later and the two sides go at it yet again, this time in the semi finals of the Copa del Rey.
Well deserved win

Among the main attractions of the last meeting was the presence of Argentina manager Diego Maradona in the stands. The game started with Mallorca taking a surprise early lead when striker Aduriz scored in the 16th minute following a brilliant individual move.

Reaction

But despite the early setback, Barça dominated the action and equalised when Henry scored from a corner on the half hour. Gudjohnsen had hit the Mallorca post a few minutes earlier. There was no further scoring in the first half.

Clincher

Guardiola’s side was even more in command after the break. Andrés Iniesta came on in the second half and scored Barça’s second among protests for offside from the visiting players. This was Iniesta’s first appearance since his injury picked in game four of the Champions League group stage against Basel.

Sending off and a cracker

As the game drew to a close, Mallorca went down to ten when Josemi was shown his second yellow card. Then in injury time, Ivorian Touré Yayá scored the best goal of the night. With the kind of skill that we’d normally associated with Eto'o or Messi, the former Monaco man excelled to make it 3-1.