“Athletic is one of the teams most affected by the lack of public.” Marcelino He has repeated it on a good number of occasions since he took charge of the rojiblanco team as soon as he started the year 2021, replacing Gaizka
Garitano, who was presented yesterday as the new manager of Eibar.
The team has paid a heavy toll since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in all its starkness. The lions played their last open-door game in Valladolid on Sunday, March 8, 2020. From there, football stopped, as did many of the activities of the society. The population was subjected to harsh confinement to control the coronavirus and lower the number of infected and deceased. Football did not resume its activity until mid-June, but it did so without an audience in the stands. This is how the last eleven days of last season were played and the entire campaign that ended on the weekend of May 22 and 23 of this year, except for the last two days, in which the government allowed the public to enter some stages of those territories with a very low incidence of the disease.
The lions have remained at 37 points in 25 appointments played in the regularity tournament
Yesterday it was precisely one year of the first game without an audience in San Mamés. Athletic directed then by Gaizka
Garitano received Atlético de Madrid on their return to league competition. The rojiblancos tied at one, with goals from Muniain Y Diego
Coast. The Txantrea player scored 1-0 in the 37th minute with a shot with his right inside the area after a good back pass from Yuri
Berchiche. Two minutes later the mattress team tied with a good inside pass from Koke that the Brazilian took advantage of to beat Unai
Simon.
“In an empty San Mamés, with an absolute sadness for not being able to defend the shield before its public,” said the chronicle issued by the Bilbao club itself. Before the game, the two captains performed a simple tribute to the deceased members and fans by placing two bouquets of flowers on a black seat. Later a minute of silence was observed with the paused chords of the Athletic anthem.
It seems like a world of all that has happened, but only a year ago. Since then, for one reason or another, the rojiblanco team has struggled to get good results at home. The fans have always been one of the great strongholds of the lions throughout their 123-year history. Possibly, some of those home draws that have weighed down the European classification would have turned into victories if they had the encouragement of the fans.
The rojiblancos add 10 wins, 7 draws and 8 losses in the league without an audience in the stands of San Mamés
Athletic is the tenth LaLiga team at home in this period, which includes the last eleven games of the previous season and the entire 2020-21 season. The lions have added 37 points in 25 matches of the regularity tournament played in San Mamés after ten victories, seven draws and eight defeats. The percentage is 49.3% of the total points put into play (75), quite far from the best in this section, Atlético, Real Madrid, Sevilla and Barça, and also very far from what the team used to be in Bilbao in other times more glorious than the present, when visiting the Bilbao countryside is a true Everest for rivals, as has also been recognized Marcelino recalling his visitor experiences against Athletic with a good number of teams, some with very good players in their ranks.
The rojiblanco team added 22 points with Gaizka
Garitano, seven in the final stretch of the 2019-20 campaign and 15 in 2020-21 before he was dismissed precisely after losing to Elche at home. With the Asturian coach they have added 15, a poor background in the competition that caused more headaches in the past year.