By Sam Hooley, Reporter, LaLigaNews
Mallorca 2-3 Deportivo La Coruna
Mallorca: Victor 19′, Nsue 86′.
Deportivo La Coruna: Silvio 27′, Marchena 48′, Riki 60′.
Deportivo La Coruna gave their fans something to smile about at last, as they saw off relegation rivals Mallorca 3-2 in what was their first away win of the season.
Despite their recent financial troubles, the side from La Coruna showed no signs of giving up, and the win sees them move to within 2 points of safety.
It was a bad start for the away side as Mallorca dominated the early stages, with Giovani Dos Santos looking dangerous on the right hand side.
Victor came close for the home side, but he failed to convert Alan Hutton’s cross, slicing his shot wide.
But the deadlock was broken in the 19th minute in unfornate circumstances for Deportivo. Victor’s effort took a big deflection, and sailed past Depor keeper Aranzubia to make it 1-0 to the home side.
Fernando Vasquez’ side responded well to going behind, and were level after 27 minutes through a great solo effort from left-back Silvio. The Portuguese international picked the ball up just outside the penalty area, beat two defenders and slotted past Aouete into the bottom corner.
The game was perfectly poised for the remainder of the first half, although Mallorca will claim that they should have had a penalty. Tomas Pina broke into the Deportivo box and went down under a challenge from Aythami, but the referee saw differently and gave a free kick to Deportivo, booking Pina in the process. Replays showed it was the correct decision.
Deportivo took the lead shortly after the restart through Marchena. Set pieces have proved to be a real problem for Mallorca this season, as they struggled to clear Pizzi’s free kick, and resulted in Marchena converting from close range.
Mallorca thought they’d equalised in the 53rd minute, but Pina’s curling effort was ruled out for offside.
Much to the frustration of the home fans, Depor doubled their advantage seven minutes later through Riki’s header. Good work from Pizzi saw him dart into the box and test Aouete, who couldn’t stop the ball rebounding to Riki, who scored his 12th goal of the season.
An 85th minute goal from Alfaro gave the game a nervy finish for the visitors, but Depor hung on to give themselves real hope of avoiding the drop this season. The win keeps them at the bottom of the table, but sees them move just one point below Celta Vigo and Mallorca, who are both on 24 points. Mallorca need to sort out problems at the back if they are to stay up, in what looks like a relegation battle set to go right to the wire.
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