Mallorca needs three penalties to defeat La Liga's most in-form goalkeeper.

BarcelonaEspanyol leaves Son Moix empty-handed after suffering terrible refereeing. Mallorca needed three penalties, some of them quite harsh, to finally beat Manolo González's team (2-1) in added time in another exhibition by Joan Garcia, who once again reminded Luis de la Fuente that he deserves to be in the senior national team. The Blue and White goalkeeper saved two penalties, one from Muriqi and another from Abdón, but was unable to stop the third, which was retaken and ultimately converted by the Kosovar striker.

A defeat that was more bitter than sweet in a match in which, it must be said, Espanyol were inferior in play to the Balearic team. However, they managed to scrape a draw thanks to their extraordinary goalkeeper. The Blue and Whites once again stuck to the same strategy that had allowed them to score points in six of the previous seven matches: maximum effort and defensive order to prolong the match as much as possible and stay alive in the second half.

No sooner said than done. Espanyol didn't make a single mistake in the first half and managed to open the scoring in the second. Edu Expósito, who had the clearest chance of the first half, a left-footed shot that went wide, made it 0-1. The midfielder from Cubelles took a short corner into the box, but Muriqi inadvertently headed it into his own net.

The Kosovar striker came close to making up for his mistake a few minutes later, when Omar called a needless penalty on Mojica, but Joan Garcia guessed his intentions with a splendid stretch. However, Espanyol's euphoria was short-lived, as they immediately conceded the equalizer from Asano's headed cross. The suffering didn't end there, because immediately afterward, the referee awarded another penalty for Kumbulla's handball, which, this time, was reversed after being warned by the VAR. Mallorca pressed harder in the closing stages, eventually finding their third penalty of the afternoon with one minute remaining, when Cabrera pushed Abdón. The contact was very light, and the striker wouldn't have reached the cross either, but the referee wanted to blow his whistle. Joan Garcia stopped him, but moments later the VAR determined that Kumbulla had stepped too far outside the box. On the third attempt, Muriqi defeated an Espanyol side that rightly protested a controversial ending in which, moreover, the time lost during the VAR review was not added.