Another frustrated opportunity for Athletic

Athletic deserved more in their visit to the Estadio de la Cerámica. The rojiblancos knew how to play face to face with Villarreal’s totally renewed eleven, but they were unable to capitalize on any more of their clear opportunities against the framework defended this time by Asenjo. Raúl García’s goal only gave to add one point.

Marcelino’s team fell by the wayside again in their attempt to approach or, in this case, surpass a direct rival in the qualifying table. The tie harvested in the yellow fiefdom leaves things as they were with respect to seventh place, but forces the lions to look in the rearview mirror to see if Valencia, who today visits Rayo Vallecano, stays just one point (something what he would do in case of knocking down Iraola’s men), he remains at three as before the start of this last day (in case of a tie) or moves away to four (if he loses).

Athletic, yes, no longer has the trick of depending on itself to beat Villarreal in the table. One of the positive aspects of this last outing is that the tie allows the Bilbao team to have a favorable goal-average with respect to the yellow team in the event of finishing the League tied on points. The lions, to remember, prevailed in San Mamés to those of Emery by the result of 2-1.

With seven days still to go before the conclusion of the championship, it seems that there is still a lot of ground to be cut. Athletic, it is only fair to admit, has done more than enough merit to prevail over its latest rivals, but its lack of efficiency penalizes it cruelly. To what was experienced three days ago in San Mamés against Getafe, Villarreal can now be added. The yellow club, paradoxically, titled yesterday the chronicle of this last game against the lions in a way that is not in keeping with what happened at grass level: “Villarreal deserves more against Athletic”.

Football, in any case, still does not understand merits. Here what counts are the goals and Marcelino’s team, unfortunately, scores far fewer than the chances they generate. There, precisely, usually lies the difference between those who are ahead in the table compared to the rest. The same as Betis days ago in a duel that was essential for the European aspirations of the rojiblancos; Emery’s team had very little to beat Unai Simón.

All this without also entering to assess the controversy of the meeting. Del Cerro Grande went beyond what the images offered from the VOR room reflected and only saw inadvertence in what everyone considered to be a full-fledged penalty by Aurier for handball, elbow in this particular case, at a shot from Muniain. Athletic, in any case, went ahead minutes later on the scoreboard and did not know how to maintain their advantage either.

always fit

There also lies another of the problems of the rojiblanco team for some time now: the rivals always beat Unai Simón’s goal. The last time the rojiblanco team finished with a clean sheet was on February 20 against Real in San Mamés. The lions then won 4-0.

From then on, in their next six league games, they have always conceded at least one goal. Barça endorsed him four, Levante lost in San Mamés but achieved the so-called goal of honor, Betis was enough with a target to keep the three points and Getafe, Elche and the aforementioned Villarreal also finished with their respective goal in favor .

Athletic’s offensive flow, it is fair to say, has increased progressively as the days went by. The lions continue to have problems when it comes to beating the rival frame, but for some time now it is not a matter of lack of opportunities, but of aim or success. All this improvement above entails, yes, a certain loss of consistency when defending. The absence of Iñigo Martínez due to injury, of course, also has his influence.