Our unbeaten run rolled onto 12 games courtesy of a hard-fought goalless draw against Sporting Gijón at the Visit Mallorca Estadi.
Luis García Plaza made two changes to his starting XI following Matchday 12’s 1-0 win at Girona FC. Martin Valjent replaced Franco Russo in central defence having returned from helping Slovakia qualify for next year’s European Championships, while Jordi Mboula was preferred to Brian Oliván.
Billed as second versus third heading into the fixture, a frenetic opening yielded early chances not often attributed to cagey top of the table clashes as Jordi Mboula tested Diego Marino from a tight angle after Dani Rodríguez teed him up with four minutes on the clock.
Not to be out done by our promising start, the visitors hit back by forcing Manolo Reina into a double reflex save from close range to deny Aitor Garcia, before Salva Sevilla saw a rasping effort deflected just wide of the target in the 17th minute.
The earlier end-to-end tempo later fizzled out as Braian Cufre tried his luck from distance, although much like García’s effort five minutes later, his attempt was wide of the mark.
A header from Uros Djurdjevic and Martin Valjent’s wild drive would be the closest either side would come to breaking the deadlock before the break, as we headed into the dressing room with a big 45 minutes ahead of us.
Rejuvenated after the break as we looked to press high against the visitors, loose balls won in the final third resulted in Íñigo Ruiz de Galarreta dragging an effort inches wide before the marauding Joan Sastre forced Marino to tip over the bar.
The goalkeeper was called into action once again just past the hour mark, although a routine stop was enough to prevent a spritely Dani Rodríguez from giving us the lead.
One of the better chances of the closing stages would fall to Pedro Díaz, and following Los Rojiblancos’ rapid transition against the run of play, the midfielder curled wide from the edge of the box to the visible relief of the home dugout.
We continued to push for a later winner right up until the final whistle as Valjent came closest opening the scoring, but the points were to be shared come full time despite our best efforts.
Closing the gap on top of the table to just one point with the draw, a trip to Cartagena now awaits us as we look to build on form which saw us become the first side in Segunda División history to record six consecutive clean sheets away from home.
RCD Mallorca: Manolo Reina, Sastre, A. Raíllo, Valjent, Cufré, I. Ruiz De Galarreta, Salva Sevilla (70’), Antonio Sánchez, Dani Rodríguez, Mboula (70’), Amath (90’)
Substitutes: Miquel Parera, Russo, Febas (70’), Álex Alegría, Abdón, Baba, F. Gámez, Trajkovski (90’), Sedlar, Murilo (70’), Oliván, Lago Júnior
Real Sporting: Mariño, Saúl, Borja López, Babin, Aitor, Pedro Díaz, Graguera, Javi Fuego, Manu García (89’), Djuka, G. Rosas
Substitutes: C.J. Sánchez, Joel, Álvaro, Neftali, Cumic, Pablo, Gaspar (89’), Pelayo, Zalaya
