10-man Mallorca clings to 0-0 with Osasuna at home
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Mallorca held on for a scoreless draw against Osasuna while playing the final 20 minutes with 10 men in the Spanish league on Friday.
The stalemate, which lacked clear scoring chances until the final minutes, left Osasuna in ninth place and Mallorca in 11th.
Defender José Copete received a direct red card in the 69th minute for fouling Osasuna’s Rubén García who had only the goalkeeper to beat.
Osasuna has failed to score in four straight league games.
It can refocus completely on the Copa del Rey clash at Athletic Bilbao on Tuesday. Osasuna leads 1-0 after the first leg. Osasuna is trying to reach the Copa final for the second time after losing to Real Betis in 2005.
“We should have been able to make good on our advantage,” Osasuna defender Aridane Hernández said. “We wanted to win this game to boost our confidence after some disappointing performances. And now we have a huge battle on Tuesday.”
Coach Jagoba Arrasate rotated his starting lineup against Mallorca. New Spain defender David García did not play. Regular starters Moi Gómez, Jon Moncayola, Abde, and Kike García started on the bench. Gómez and Moncayola went on shortly before Copete was sent off for Mallorca. Abde and García then followed to look for the breakthrough.
But the undermanned Mallorca had little trouble in defense, the strong point of coach Javier Aguirre.
When Osasuna finally did threaten in stoppage time, goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic made back-to-back saves to deny Moncayola and Abde.
Osasuna forward Chimy Ávila missed the match while recovering from a left-leg injury that could rule him out of the Copa semifinal.
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