Copa del Rey

Mallorca (1) 2 - Celta (3) 1

A bad tempered match at Mallorca, where the home team won their game against Celta but were eliminated thanks to the two goal margin in the first leg. The animosity from that game carried on at the San Moix, with Mallorca ending the match with nine men after Olaizola and Eto'o got their marching orders in the second half. The normally laid back Mallorca crowd were in a foul mood after heated exchanges in the press all week, and the Celta players had to train before the match under a police escort. With management dropping ticket prices as low as 100 Pesetas a 20,000 capacity crowd created a hostile atmosphere, receiving the Gallician side, and particularly Karpin, with boos and whistles and a wave of white handkerchiefs, a sign of protest (and on other occasions praise) in Spain. Both sides were almost at full strength, looking to this competition as an entry point to Europe next season. Mallorca's Novo came in for Marcos, still serving a two match ban from the first leg, and Pinto returned in goal for the visitors. Catanha and Yago almost gave Celta the lead in the opening moments, but Nadal opened the scoring for the Island side just before half time with a potent header after a corner from the right. However rather than trying to win the game the home side seemed more intent in taking out their opponents, and the inevitable happened midway through the second half when referee Iturralde González sent off Olaizola for a second bookable offence after he elbowed Gustavo López in the face. With no right back on the field López had more freedom, and a few minutes later he swung the ball across for Catanha to get ahead of his marker to head past Leo Franco. Mallorca became more desperate, and Eto'o got himself sent off for a lunging tackle from behind on substitute Edu five minutes before time. Finally Mallorca seemed to realise there was a match in progress, and they narrowed the scores from an Engonga penalty after Velasco pushed over Biagini in the area. But it was too late, and Celta go on to try to reach the final for the third time ever and the first time since they lost on penalties to Zaragoza in 1994. After the match a local idiot was arrested for throwing a stone through the window of Celta's team coach, a futile gesture for an opportunity lost. With calmer heads Mallorca could still have been in next Friday's draw. Hopefully they learnt from the experience.

 
Quarter-finals