The hosts were dealt an instant blow with Mouctar Diakhaby forced off due to an injury within four minutes. His lack of involvement has had an adverse impact as of late, with Valencia winless in six of the last seven he has not started, therefore 86 minutes without their talisman put them on the back foot.
Controlling proceedings against 15th-place Mallorca was of no issue past that point, though, with the hosts amassing 67% of possession and eight attempts on goal, yet they couldn’t find an opener before halftime.
Andre Almeida had his side’s only shot on target, seeing it tipped around the post by Predrag Rajkovic.
This display in the opening 45 minutes caused doubts around the Mestalla about whether Los Che could turn the corner on recent poor results, having seen their team draw three of their previous four matches.
They were seemingly put to rest quickly as Cavani scored the opener from the spot after Samuel Dias Lino was tripped in the penalty area.
However, the lead lasted little over ten minutes before Mallorca had a penalty of their own, and Muriqi drew Los Bermellones level on his return from suspension.
Back at square one and with Valencia running out of ideas, there were a tense 24 minutes left for either side to steal the points.
It surprisingly began to look like the visitors who would do so given the fact they had only managed to salvage one point after falling behind so far this campaign, and eventually, a moment of brilliance from Lee against his former club gave his current one the victory.
After being played into the box by Dani Rodriguez, the South Korean cut back onto his right foot before smashing an unstoppable effort into the roof of the net.
It was a nervy final few minutes to hang on for the away side, with flashbacks to scuppering a two-goal lead in stoppage time at this stadium last season brewing.
In the end, Mallorca did enough to hold out, taking them up to 12th in La Liga and only three points behind Valencia, who are now winless in three matches.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Kang-In Lee (Real Mallorca)
