The Lions had two goals disallowed as they missed a great chance to beat the Balearic Islanders, who went down to ten men early on
Athletic Club pick up a point after a stalemate against RCD Mallorca on Monday night. The home side were reduced to ten men in the 22nd minute when Samú Costa received a second yellow card.
Athletic now move up to fifth in the table but they also let two points slip through their fingers on a night when the Williams brothers each had a goal disallowed and Nico Williams hit the crossbar.
Apart from an early Vedat Muriqi effort, which Julen Agirrezabala saved with his foot from close-range, Athletic were always in control.
It is true that this was helped by Samú Costa's excessive aggression, the Portuguese midfielder receiving two deserved yellow for heavy challenges on Iñigo Ruiz de Galarreta. In fact, the referee had given given the player his marching orders after the first tackle but overturned his decision after talking with his linesman.
The first disallowed goal came in the 44th minute as Nico headed home a delivery from his brother, Iñaki. However, the ball had crossed the byline before Iñaki's cutback.
Ernesto Valverde's side were more incisive in the second half. The regret was that they squandered a lot of corners. The second disallowed goal came in the 74th minute. Alex Berenguer laid up Yuri with a back heel before the full-back found Iñaki in the box with a great pass. Unfortunately, the foward was just slightly offside.
The clearest chance of all came when Nico, who finished 15th place in the 2024 Ballon d'Or rankings, hit the crossbar with a curled effort. A second later, Berenguer caught the rebound on the turn and narrowly missed the target.
Ernesto made changes as Athletic went for victory. In the 83rd minute, Oscar de Marcos came on to overtake the legendary Txetxu Rojo as the club's third-highest appearance maker ever.
Alex again and then Ander Herrera, with a left-footed drive from distance, both had chances to score the winner. But it wasn't to be.
