Mallorca 2- Barcelona 0

Mallorca: Leo Franco; Olaizola, Fernando Niño, Nadal, Miguel Soler; Finidi (Novo 73'), Engonga (Stankovic 80'), Marcos, Ibagaza; Eto'o, Luque (Francisco Soler 67'). 4-4-2.
Barcelona: Dutruel; Puyol, Abelardo, Reiziger (Gerard 46'); Xavi (De La Peña 65'), Cocu; Simao, Luis Enrique (Alfonso 65'), Sergi; Rivaldo, Dani. 3-2-3-2.

Team changes: Mallorca: None / Barça: None.

Goals:
1-0. 11. Eto'o. Beat Sergi to rebound after Dutruel blocked Luque shot.
2-0. 50. Ibagaza. Eto'o laid ball on after mix up between Dutruel and Sergi.

A rapidly improving Mallorca knocked Barcelona off their pedestal in the San Moix stadium on Saturday night. Barcelona had been going through a mini-revival after a bad start to the week, with away draws at Milan and Leeds in Europe and a victory over Real Madrid in the Spanish league last weekend. However their performance here was very grey, with two elementary defensive errors by Dutruel and Sergi letting Eto'o in twice for Mallorca to score. First of all, the Camerooni forward 'robbed Sergi's wallet' after Dutruel blocked Luque's shot, sticking his foot around the stationary defender to poke the ball over the keeper's head to the amazement of one and all. Then in the second half the action almost repeated itself, with Dutruel once again failing to hold on to a shot from Luque. As he scrambled on hands and knees towards the ball, Sergi came in, but with Dutruel expecting a clearance, Sergi leapt over his keeper, leaving Eto'o free to play a square pass to the unmarked Ibagaza, who scored into an empty net.

Mallorca's return to form has coincided with the return of Eto'o and Luque from the Olympic games, and once again the front pair created havoc. In fact Luque was unlucky not to add to the scoreline after referee Fernández Marín ruled out a perfectly good goal from the young striker for an inexistent offside. Finidi also missed a couple of good chances, the first with a header which went just wide, and then with a shot from close range which Puyol scrambled off the line. Mallorca's manager Luis Aragonés, sitting this one out in the stands after being sent off last week, had announced before the game that he knew how to stop the Barcelona forwards, and he proved true to his word. His players closed down the visitors before they could move the ball around, with Xavi constantly accompanied by Engonga or one of his men, and they maintained possession for much of the game. Rivaldo was nowhere to be seen, and Alfonso was lucky not to be given a red card when he brought down Novo from behind in frustration.

Serra Ferrer brought on more attacking players as the game progressed, but that only left more gaps at the back, which Mallorca almost exploited to add more suffering to the Catalans. Barcelona plunge back into their crisis, having now lost four games out of the last seven, and their manager is expected to make changes for their midweek game with Numancia as they drop out of the UEFA places down to seventh. Mallorca are rising up the table with seven points in three games, and their visit to Real Madrid on Wednesday will be another test for Aragonés and his team. Luque, having failed to hold down a first team place at Málaga last season and in the Olympic side in Sydney, is now being touted as the next player to be called up for the full international squad. Such is football, in Spain at least. Memories are short, and teams can go from heroes to villains in a few days. Then again, it's all part of the fun.