Espanyol squandered the chance to move up to second place in La Liga, at least overnight, when they were held to a 2-2 draw at Real Mallorca and the Barcelona-based side remain in fifth.

Mallorca’s Juan Arango opened the scoring after just two minutes when the Venezuelan striker volleyed home a free-kick from Ariel Ibagaza on Saturday.

Arango then went from hero to villain 18 minutes later when he headed Luis Garcia’s free-kick into his own net. Having lost their lead, Mallorca then seemed to lose their heads and six minutes later, Sergio Ballesteros hacked down Espanyol’s Raul Tamudo and the Spanish international striker gave the visitors the lead from the penalty spot.

Ballesteros was also sent off for the foul, the 11th red card of his career, which makes him the most dismissed player currently in the Spanish first division, but Espanyol couldn’t capitalise from having a one man advantage. The numbers were evened up early in the second half when Espanyol left back Clemente Rodriguez was booked for the second time after 55 minutes.

Arango nearly redeemed himself in the eyes of the home supporters, who had loudly whistled their team off at half time, when he hit the post after 67 minutes. Two minutes later, Mallorca did get back on level terms when Daniel Guiza hammered home an Arango pass.

However, the hard-earned point which moved Mallorca up to sixth was not enough to stop the majority of the home crowd barracking their own players for the second time as they left the field at the end of the game.

Athletic Bilbao fought out a 0-0 draw with Real Betis later on Saturday, a game in which nine men were booked.
Unbeaten in La Liga or the European Champions League in front of their own fans in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, Real mADRID are on top of the Spanish first division with 19 points from their eight games.

One point behind Real are both Villarreal and Valencia, who are second and third respectively and split only by goal difference. Valencia travel to Sevilla on Sunday, where the home side will be looking to bounce back after the upheavals of seeing their coach Juande Ramos resign on Friday and take over at the helm of London side Tottenham Hotspur.