Real Mallorca Crisis

By Carys Baptist
March 25 2004

Real Mallorca will be playing the game against Newcastle United this evening without their captian. Javier Olaizola damaged the cruciate ligaments in his right knee during their 5-1 defeat against Valencia at the weekend

Javier Olaizola damaged the cruciate ligaments in his right knee during their 5-1 defeat against Valencia at the weekend. Olaizola has been ruled out till at least the end of the season with all hopes of keeping his team from relegation dashed.

Mallorca Coach Luis Aragones confirmed reports that his team were concentrating more on surviving the domestic league than worrying about a further place in the UEFA cup, by setting up a weakened team for tonight’s clash of which the enter with a 4-1 defeat by Newcastle in the first leg at St James’ Park.

"We have got a very important match at Murcia on Sunday and we have to remember that, that is something we must look ahead to.
Of course it will be difficult to beat Newcastle when we are starting the game 4-1 down. But it is not impossible."

As well as an absent captain the Luis Aragones is also without defender Miguel Angel Nadal due to an Achilles problem and also has four players serving suspensions, including Eduardo Moya, Gonzalo Colsa and David Cortes.

Due to these changes it looks likely that Federico Lussenhoff, Nene and Txomin Nagore will be the only players to start from the team that played in Newcastle.

Even Samuel Eto is reportedly set to start by warming up the bench.