La Liga Preview: Real Mallorca - Real Zaragoza

When Real Zaragoza kicked off their opening game of the season against newly-promoted Real Murcia last August and lost, few would have thought that was a sign of more to come.

It was deemed to be a one off from a team that were expected to be challenging for the top six at the very least after their performance last season under Víctor Fernández.

Instead, los Maños head to the ONO Estadi in Mallorca knowing that they need at least a point to stand any chance of returning to the Balearic island for a league game next term.

The club's troubles have been well documented, with the current coach, Manolo Villanova, being the fourth of the season while the summer sales outweighed the summer purchases and appear to have left the squad thinly stretched.

Internal squabbles sometimes turned public, like with Andrés D'Alessandro's problems with Fernández which is ended with the player being loaned out for teh second half of the season.

On the pitch, the flowing football and the flurry of goals from last season failed to be repeated this time around and while Diego Milito remains popular he is not the hero he was when last term ended.

Talk at La Romareda this week has been one of optimism, even if Villanova somewhat oddly stated that their fate was in their own hands when in fact they are in 18th place and one points behind both Osasuna and Recreativo.

One Away Win

That feeling that they can achieve something must come from the quality on paper within the squad, because on grass they have not been at all good on their travels.

Zaragoza have played 18 away games this term and have won just once, while drawing five and losing 12, and they have only netted on 12 occasions while conceding 34.

Those figures do not bode well for the visit to a team that is just one place and one point behind sixth and have high hopes of pinching the final UEFA Cup spot from Racing Santander.

Mallorca are a club which are very difficult to predict at the start of any season, but for such a modest outfit their performance in the top flight since winning promotion ten years ago has been magnificent.

Two mid-table finishes in the past two seasons gave coach Gregorio Manzano something to build upon and he has done very well in the transfer market to bolster the squad.

The main arrival was Daniel Güiza from Getafe and his goals have helped lift the Balearic club into the top ten and to the cusp of another appearance in European competition.

An Intertoto Cup place is still in the offing, of course, but the Mallorca players will know that victory on Sunday coupled with Racing dropping points could mean a couple more weeks holiday this summer.

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