Mallorca beat Real Union to advance to Copa del Rey round of 32

Mallorca beat third-tier club Real Unión 1-0 in a Copa del Rey clash on Tuesday, earning a spot in the round of 32 where heavyweights Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Real Betis will also enter the tournament.

A photo posted on the official RCD Mallorca Instagram account celebrating a 1-0 win over Real Union in the Copa del Rey shows Korean midfielder Lee Kang-in during the match at Stadium Gal in Irun, Spain. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Mallorca beat third-tier club Real Unión 1-0 in a Copa del Rey clash on Tuesday, earning a spot in the round of 32 where heavyweights Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Real Betis will also enter the tournament.

The sole goal came in the 20th minute, when Dani Rodriguez tackled a defender on the edge of his own box and slammed the ball into the back of the net.

Korean midfielder Lee Kang-in, newly returned from a successful spell at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, played 77 minutes, providing constant pressure on the Unión defense but proved unable to get anything across.

The 1-0 win secures Mallorca’s advance but is not a particularly inspiring result for a top-tier club against such a low-ranked team.

Mallorca are in the middle of a fairly good season, sitting in the middle of the La Liga table with five wins, four draws and five losses for 11th place, a reasonable effort for a team that was relegated just three years ago, worked their way back into the top tier two years ago and finished the 2021-22 season in 16th place.

Lee, who joined Mallorca last year after a decade in Valencia, has been having a particularly good season, scoring two goals and picking up three assists so far and earning a player of the month nomination along the way.

Lee has established himself an especially effective playmaker, using fancy footwork to beat defenders and his impressive accuracy to get the ball up to the front.

That skill was on display in Qatar, where he very quickly made a name for himself, appearing in all four games and making a mark in his World Cup debut against Uruguay, when Lee and Cho Gue-sung came on as late substitutes and immediately breathed new life into a flagging team.

Against Ghana, Lee came on in the 57th minute and within less than a minute he had driven a beautiful cross into the box for Cho to head home.

That one-minute assist likely turned more than a few heads in Europe’s big five leagues, where attention has already been on the young midfielder. It also earned Lee a spot on the list of youngest assist providers at the Qatar World Cup, coming in as the fourth youngest.

For Lee and Mallorca, the focus is now likely to be on whether there are any serious offers on the table when the January transfer window opens in 10 days.

Lee has only ever played for two clubs, both in Spain. He has long been a fan favorite back home, where he has been seen as the future of Korean football since starring on TV show “Fly Shoot Dori” at just six years old. He moved to Valencia a few years after that appearance and spent 10 years in the academy before being dropped last year and moving to Mallorca.

Unlike the Premier League, the La Liga is resuming after Christmas this year, allowing the Mallorca plays to rest and train for the best part of two weeks before returning to the pitch on Friday, Dec. 30 for a league game against Getafe. The next Copa del Rey game will follow a few days later.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]