ALAVÉS 0-ATHLETIC 0 | A derby doomed to a draw

All good that Athletic had done against Osasuna and Mancha Real in the different League and Cup formats went down the sewer under the Mendizorroza deluge. In the first two dates of 2022 it was pure poison in the last quarter of the field, finishing plays with the best possible magnifying glass. And against Alavés he made good plays, took the ball with firm ideas to Pacheco’s balcony, but he recreated more than necessary in the enemy area. In five games after the Albiazul promotion, the lions had only achieved a draw and still did not lose the victory. Back to the old ways of the lack of efficiency. The rojiblancos deserved the victory by the minimum, but football does not understand justice. His best chances went to limbo and in the case of Glorioso, he brushed it off with a shot to the crossbar.

It fell into the seas and there was as much fight as rain. Mendilibar has returned and his stamp in LaLiga is already noticeable. His matches are classics of aggressiveness, shock and vertigo. Neither the greeting is given as a gift. And so the derby went largely, with a lot of struggle for half a square meter and continuous falls, blood, bruises … without the goalkeepers staining their gloves much. With the rain and the race of some players like Iñigo Martínez, Joselu and Dani García, the battle was an epic northern postcard. It invited a rugged setting. And this grew with the fortuitous injury of Vencedor in the third minute, after a throw-in and a balloon.

Only Laguardia was missing to complete the heroic landscape. He tested negative in the morning after overcoming the coronavirus, but he did not see himself in condition. With the return of Pellistri, Pacheco and Sivera, the inmates were Pina, Saúl and Guidetti. Ximo Navarro and Pons are injured, and Loum, with Senegal, so the casualties were extensive in the local team. As if that were not enough, in the third minute, Vencedor was injured after a throw-in and the launch of a balloon.

Mendilibar activated a fiery left wing to serve, with Duarte and Rioja very incisive. There wasn’t much exposure from anyone, the risk was minimal, and the pulse was even. The best thing to do was to play very vertical and with little pause. Williams fired in one of those actions and Lejeune, remembering the one he did in 2016 with Eibar, grabbed it and was even traced by the ram. Light yellow. Muniain went inside and they did not detect him, so Mendilibar had to take one of the measures that friends do not make: in the purest Paco Jémez style, he removed the debutant Jason four minutes before the break and reinforced the central corridors with another that Escalante premiered.

The attacking duo Sancet-Williams did not shoot on goal their entire workday. Only Iñaki had a delivery, after filtering a Muniain pass, but his right hand went to the side of the net. Nor is it that Joselu had much more presence, who did not get close to Simón. The party could be decided by a mistake. For example, that of Williams at the start of the game in the 56th minute, with a lethal loss that Duarte picked up and tried to strain it from Vaseline from 30.5 meters. Simon was agile, brushing his fingertips just enough for the leather to go off the crossbar.

Marcelino changed the attacking partner. He put Berenguer, as in the Cup, and Raúl García. Muniain went about his business. In a beautiful play in the 70th minute, he drove through the middle of the field, threw a couple of threats and breaks, he left it to Raúl García and his pass could not push him into the mouth of the goal, neither Berenguer nor the youngest of the Williams. At that point, Athletic already ruled the scene, but only by the difference of a hair. Berenguer launched at ground level, although Pacheco stopped it. It was the second shot between the three suits between both teams, a milestone. The Bilbao team had the ability to control the ball and associate, the high pressure from Alavés barely had any effect. But the inaccuracies and lack of decision left everything as it was.