More magic from Muriqi as Mallorca maul Sevilla in La Liga

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MADRID (AP) — Vedat Muriqi scored his ninth goal in nine La Liga games as Mallorca beat Sevilla 4-1 to leapfrog its rival and escape the relegation zone on Monday.

Muriqi’s first half penalty put Mallorca ahead and continued his rich vein of form. The 26th-minute strike was his sixth this year and his 15th of the season. It keeps him second in the league goalscoring chart, seven behind Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé.

Neal Maupay leveled for Sevilla on the stroke of halftime but Mallorca took control again soon after the break.

Samú Costa put Mallorca ahead after great work from Jan Virgili on the left wing and 20 minutes later Muriqi helped to set up Sergi Darder to make it 3-1.

Pablo Torre added a fourth in stoppage time to give Mallorca its first four-goal haul of the season and end Sevilla’s encouraging run of four undefeated games.

Sevilla fell to 15th place, just two points above the relegation zone. Mallorca was 14th.

Only four points separate the teams from ninth to 18th in a hyper-competitive mid-table.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer