Mallorca stuns Girona 1-0, intensifying LaLiga relegation scramble and piling pressure on Sevilla
- Mallorca beat Girona 1-0 at Montilivi on May 1, with Samú Costa scoring before halftime and Leonardo Román preserving a huge away win. (espn.com) - The result lifted Mallorca to 38 points from 34 games, level with Girona and Elche, while Sevilla stayed 18th on 34 points. (laliga.com) - With five games left, Sevilla now faces Real Sociedad, Espanyol, Villarreal, Real Madrid and Celta chasing survival from the drop zone. (sevillafc.es)
LaLiga’s relegation fight just got nastier. Mallorca went to Girona on Friday, May 1, and won 1-0 — the kind of result that looks small on paper b(espn.com)do Román held the lead, and suddenly Mallorca moved out of immediate danger while Sevilla’s problem got bigger. Girona lost a d(laliga.com)the teams below them got less room to breathe. (espn.com) ### What (sevillafc.es)ith Costa’s first-half goal deciding it. Girona had more of the ball — 58.6% possession — and took 14 shots to Mallorca’s 9, but Mallorca put 5 efforts on target and Román made 4 saves to get them over the line. Attendance was 13,886, and the whole thing had the feel of a six-pointer rather than a pretty football match. (espn.com) ### Why is one goal such a big deal? Because this was not a mid-table annoya(espn.com)fore the weekend’s full slate finished, Mallorca’s win pushed them to 38 points from 34 matches. Girona stayed on 38 as well, but with a much worse goal difference — minus 15 versus Mallorca’s minus 9. In a relegation race, that gap matters because ties on points stop feeling hypothetical very fast. (laliga.com) ### Where does Sevill(espn.com)Liga table now has Sevilla 18th with 34 points from 33 matches, inside the relegation zone, while Alavés sits 17th on 36. Mallorca and Girona are both ahead on 38, and Elche is there too on 38. So Sevilla is not just chasing one club anymore — it is chasing a whole cluster. (laliga.com) ### Why does the table feel so compressed? Because the bottom is packed into a tiny points range with only a few r(laliga.com)on 33, the spread is just 5 points. That means one win can lift a team several places, but one bad weekend can dump a team back into the bottom three. Mallorca’s win is a perfect example — same club, same problems, but three points completely change the mood. (laliga.com) ### What does Sevilla have left? A rough run. Se(laliga.com)l on May 9, Villarreal on May 13, Real Madrid on May 17, and Celta on May 24. There is one obvious must-win there — Espanyol at home — but the catch is that Sevilla probably needs more than one clean result. Villarreal and Real Madrid are brutal opponents at this stage, and Celta away on the final day is not a soft landing either. (sevillafc.es) ### Is Girona safe after this loss? Not really. Gi(laliga.com)n and the goal difference is ugly. They have 38 points, the same as Mallorca and Elche, and only 2 more than Alavés. Lose again while Sevilla or Levante wins, and the whole picture changes. That is why losing at home to a direct rival hurts twice — you drop points and hand survival points to someone next to you. (laliga.com) ### Why was this such a classic survival-game result? Because survi(sevillafc.es)on and more attempts, but Mallorca got the goal and defended the box. Basically, this was one of those nights where efficiency mattered more than style. Costa finished the big moment, Román handled the pressure, and Mallorca left with exactly the kind of ugly, precious win teams remember in May. (espn.com) ### Bottom line? Mallorca did not secure safety on May (laliga.com)avier pressure, and the relegation fight now looks like a multi-team sprint where one goal can reorder everything. (laliga.com)
