Vedat Muriqi’s first-half strike is the difference at the Visit Mallorca Estadi
Vedat Muriqi’s first-half strike saw us end the year with a 1-0 victory over Atletico Madrid as the season breaks for the World Cup.
We got off to a dream start and had the lead in the 16th minute as following a goalmouth scramble owed to a Jan Oblak save, Muriqi was in the right place at the right time to fire home Jaume Costa’s pull back.
The visitors thought they had an instant response in the 20th minute when Alvaro Morata raced in behind and found the back of the net, but a VAR review revealed the striker was in an offside position.
This was the closest Atletico Madrid would come to levelling matters as we held onto possession for the remainder of the first half.
Morata continued to look dangerous after the restart and forced Rajkovic into a fine save in the 57th minute.
We limited Diego Simeone’s side to long distance efforts for most of the second half as Rajkovic had to make a few smart stops to deny Antoine Griezmann and Rodrigo De Paul.
Amath had a golden opportunity to kill the game and double our lead with a few minutes left on the clock when Muriqi raced in behind and teed up the forward, although Oblak got down well to make a block.
Morata came close to equalising late on with a close-range header, although Rajkovic produced a fine save to push over the bar and ensure we recorded all three points on our final game of 2022.
RCD Mallorca: Rajkovic, Gio (Russo 91’), Valjent, Raíllo, Copete, Jaume Costa; Baba (Battaglia, 46’); Galarreta, Antonio Sánchez (Grenier 72’), Kang In Lee (Amath, 72'), Muriqi (Abdon, 87’).
Atlético de Madrid: Oblak, Molina (Correa 30’), Reinildo (Reguilón 69’), Savic, Felipe, De Paul (Koke 69’), Llorente, Witsel, Carrasco (Lemar 59’), Griezmann, Morata.
