Athletic Club - SD Eibar

Athletic Club have played the last match of the year at San Mamés, where they have only lost one league fixture (with Valencia) in 2019. It was a game with scarce scoring chances. Only the side managed by Gaizka Garitano could have had the possibility to win if they had just converted one of the two great goal opportunities created in the second half. In the first period, Dmitrovic made a save after a one-on-one duel with Ibai, and on 72 minutes, referee Melero López disallowed Rober Correa’s own goal after a VAR check; apparently, Capa was in an offside position for a few centimetres.

The game only started to be a little more interesting in the second half. Eibar, in real need of points after four defeats in a row, constantly stemmed the flow of the game and Athletic could not get rid of them. A shot from Pedro León, which was stopped by Simón, and a fast-paced counter-attack from the hosts in injury time -where Cordoba, clearly offside, netted the ball after it had been shot by Raúl García and cleared by Eibar’s keeper- were the only significant chances.

After the Interval, Ibai, and later Villalibre, were brought on to spice up the forward line. It was Williams’ powerful diagonal cross which left Ibai alone before Dmitrovic. The winger kept a cool head to avoid rushing the shot and dribbled the defender who was following him, but the goalkeeper cleared the ball with his foot.

Seven minutes later, the disallowed goal arrived, after San José and Capa came in from behind, being the latter the one that crossed the ball towards the Eibar’s defender who scored the own goal past Ibai. However, it was shortly chalked off. There were two more chances later, a header by Raúl García and a strike from San José following Yuri’s assistance, but the final whistle came as a relief for the visitors, who were looking forward to the end of the game.