A year without an audience in San Mamés

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected all walks of life. Citizens have had to get used to the restrictions set by the health crisis and sports in general and football in particular have also had to adapt to this situation. The matches are played with empty doors, at the moment there is no clear or close date for this to change and time passes with the stadiums closed to the public.

So much so that today marks a year since the last match Athletic played in San Mamés with fans in the stands. It was on Sunday, March 1, 2020. Those then led by Gaizka
Garitano they received Villarreal in the match corresponding to the twenty-sixth day of the 2019-20 League. After losing to Alavés in Mendizorrotza, the rojiblancos defeated the yellows by the minimum (1-0) with 36,350 spectators in the stands in the clash that began at two in the afternoon. Raul
Garcia sentenced from eleven meters by transforming at the beginning of the second half a penalty marked by a shot from Williams that gave in the hand of Pau
towers.

The following game (March 8), the Bilbao team gave a good account of Valladolid at home (1-4) and since then all activity has stopped. The government decreed a state of alarm on the 14th and the confinement of the population.

LaLiga regained football on the weekend of June 13 and 14. Since then, the lions, like the rest of the First teams, have played every game in San Mamés with an empty goal. There have been a total of 18 league commitments between last season and the current one, in which the people of Bilbao have added 27 points, after eight victories, three draws and seven defeats.

After the de-escalation and in relation to the 19-20 season, the group of Garitano defeated Betis (1-0) and Mallorca (3-1) at home, equalized on the scoreboard against Atlético (1-1) and lost against Real Madrid (0-1), Sevilla (1-2) and Leganés (0-2). Already in this course, the rojiblancos, both with Mr. Derio and with Marcelino, his substitute, have six home wins without fans in the stands -Levante (2-0), Sevilla (2-1), Betis (4-0), Huesca (2-0), Elche (1-0) and Getafe (5-1) -, two draws -Valencia and Villarreal, both 1-1- and they have knelt in four commitments: Cadiz (0-1), Celta (0-2), Real Sociedad (0-1 ) and Barça (2-3).

These 27 points represent 50% of the positions at stake in these 18 games (54). The records were higher in eight of the ten previous seasons in full: 35 points added at home in 2018-19 (61.4%), 26 in 2017-18 (45.6%), 43 in 2016-17 (75.4%), 37 in 2015-16 (64.9%), 30 in 2014-15 (52.6%), 43 in 2013-14 (75.4%), 27 in 2012 -13 (47.4%), 31 in 2011-12 (54.4%), 37 in 2010-11 (64.9%) and the same figure in 2009-10.