Mallorca 1 -
Atlético Madrid 2
Mallorca: Leo Franco;
Armando (Carlos 60'), Olaizola, Fernando Niño, Miguel Soler; Serrizuela,
Engonga, Stankovic; Ibagaza; Diego Tristán, Eto'o. 4-3-1-2.
Atlético: Molina; Mena, Gaspar, Santi, Capdevila;
Valerón, Baraja, Paunovic (Roberto 55'), Luque; Solari (Njegus 75');
Hasselbaink (Toni Muñoz 90'). 4-4-1-1.
Team changes: Mallorca:
Serrizuela, Engonga for Lauren, Chichi Soler / Atlético: Molina, Mena,
Capdevila, Paunovic, Solari for Toni Jiménez, Aguilera, Toni
Muñoz, Hugo Leal, Correa.
Goals: 0-1. 05. Paunovic.
From close range after Solari corner from right. 1-1. 13. Eto'o. Chested
down and shot after return pass from Tristán. 1-2. 30. Solari.
Direct free kick from right touchline which everyone missed.
Another change of manager at
Atlético Madrid this week, with president Jesus Gil deciding that
Radomir Antic was not the man he wanted to take his club back out of the second
division next season. Antic had been brought back by legal administrator Luis
Manuel Rubí, despite being in a dispute with the club for settlement pay
which Gil had refused to pay him. Rubí came to an agreement with the
Serbian trainer to pay him a certain amount for the season to compensate his
loss of earnings, and he took over. However, a few weeks ago, with the team
virtually relegated, the judge decided to replace the administrator with a
legal interventor, effectively handing day to day management back to the Gil
family. In the end neither Gil nor Antic could save them, and they will be
relegated for the first time since 1934 to the second division. Antic's third
spell in charge was hardly successful, and after winning their first match they
then went four months without a league victory (although they have done better
in the cup and reached the final). Gil said he could not pay such a high salary
to a manager in the second division and Antic responded that he would do it for
free, provided that Gil paid him a bonus if they went back up, and then
respected the rest of his contract at the present rates once they were back in
the first division. At first Gil accepted, but after unrest amongst the players
and continuing poor results, the president finally decided that enough was
enough and that Antic had to go. Gil's words the night before he sacked the
manager were that 'the poor boy seems to be a bit confused with all the goings
on at the moment'. Who isn't? The following day Antic turned up for training
only to be told that he was out and that B team manager Fernando Zambrano would
be in charge for the last two matches (including the cup final) pending the
appointment of a new man. Needless to say, Gil decided that the manager's
contract was illegal as it did not contain any reference to what would happen
if the team were relegated, and once again has refused to pay out on the
severance pay clause, offering a figure around half of the agreed amount (still
some 150 million Pesetas). Here we go again! In the meantime, five names
appeared in the local press as possible replacements, all of them Spaniards.
Oviedo's Luis Aragonés is apparently favourite (another old
Atlético war-horse), and others include Barcelona's stand-in Serra
Ferrer, Numancia's Goikoetxea, Rayo's Juande Ramos and Sevilla's ex manager
Marcos Alonso. Whatever your opinion is, the change did some good, with players
already looking as if they were relieved that it was all over at the first
training session under Zambrano. At this stage in the season he has to work
with the players he has got, and his line up for this weekend's match did not
differ greatly from the sides put out by Antic. He only had one chance to get
it right for the next Saturday's final though, and the starting eleven here
could well be the one that plays in Mestalla, with the possible exception of
Hugo Leal, suspended for this match, and Aguilera, if he is fit and available.
Back came Molina in goal, and in came Mena at right back and Paunovic in
midfield, two players who did not feature much either in Antic's or Ranieri's
teams. Zambrano also kept faith with three players he was in charge of in the B
team, Baraja, Gaspar and Luque, thinking perhaps about the squad for next year,
and Solari played in a position much further forward than he did with Antic.
The match was brought forward to Friday as Mallorca were still fighting with
Celta for seventh place which would give them the top Spanish spot in the
Intertoto cup. Their manager Fernando Vázquez was also fighting, in his
case for his job, with his future at the club probably tied to their qualifying
for a back door place in Europe. The big surprise in the Mallorca side was the
exclusion of Lauren, with Serrizuela taking his place on the right of midfield.
After the match Vázquez explained that he had left the Camarooni
international out after he announced that he had just signed for Arsenal,
although later it did not appear so cut and dried as was previously thought.
Right from the start there was an extra spring in the step of the
Atlético players, and the visitors took the lead in the fifth minute
when Paunovic converted Solari's corner. Mallorca were not expecting this, as
they reckoned that Atlético would be demotivated, but they picked their
socks up and came back, with Eto'o cutting strongly through the visitors
defence to score with a little help from Tristán. Solari was a man on a
mission though, and after he swathed through the Mallorca back four before
bringing the best out of Leo Franco. A few minutes later he restored
Atlético's lead rather fortunately with a long free kick from the right
side which Leo Franco completely misjudged, probably put off by Hasselbaink's
lunge at the ball with his head. Both keepers produced good saves as the game
swung from end to end, and Vazquez put on an extra forward Carlos on the hour
mark as news came in that Barcelona had equalised against Celta.
Atlético were reduced to ten men near the end as referee Llonch Andreu,
(winner of our white stick award this year) gave Baraja a second yellow card,
but the result stayed the same. Atlético have new hope for next week's
final, looking for a place in Europe next year to top up their income and hold
on to their key players. Mallorca drop down to tenth, three places below Celta,
and must now decide if they want to take the second spot available to Spanish
teams, which means they will enter the earlier round of the Intertoto at the
beginning of July. Their fans were less than impressed. |