Unai Simón helps Athletic

The tie does not fill the tooth neither to Getafe nor to Athletic: the azulones do not finish leaving the relegation places and the Bilbaons miss the European squares.

Athletic’s brake lights have come on and there are already seven days that he has not won. On this occasion he had to thank for not losing Unai Simón, the national team’s goalkeeper who made outstanding hand-to-hand saves, point-blank shots from Sandro and Olivera.

Marcelino did not hide his intentions: Muniain on the bench and inside Raúl García. Night for gladiators, for that the stadium was the Coliseum. The presence of the Williams brothers announced dizzying speed, but until a counterattack (44 ‘) started by Nico and badly finished by Iñaki there were hardly any traces of the brotherhood.

Neither from them nor from anyone else, because in the first part the danger from Getafe and Athletic came from remote control, distant shots that were easy to deactivate. A from outside the Arambarri area (14 ‘) after a strategy play was the first shot between the three sticks. It was followed by a direct shot from Íñigo Martínez (20 ‘) with a free-kick from quite a distance and then another shot from a distance, this time from Aleñá (23’). The series was closed by Dani García (38 ‘) also from afar. The closest of the four shots was executed a few meters outside the large area.

A hand from Yeray on the edge of the area that ended in a foul and whose foul ended in nothing was the moment of greatest tension. Only that aforementioned opportunity that was missed by Iñaki Williams ventured that the narrowness of the schemes could be broken.

The shock caused Getafe to come out more plugged in the second half, so much so that, shortly (49 ‘), Aleñá was about to score with a precise Vaseline that Unai Simón pulled from his back.

There was more, in 64 ‘Sandro knocked down De Marcos with a cut and finished off in a diagonalHe, but everything that had started the play well ended it badly.

Getafe believed and pursued the goal with conviction, and Sandro had it in his pocket when in 74 ‘he ran ahead of Unai Simon, but the Athletic and National Team goalkeeper ruined his illusions.

Clearly, Unai Simón was being the best Athletic player. But it was even clearer when, in the 86th minute, and totally sold out he took a shot from point-blank range to Olivera. The easiest thing was for that ball to end in a goal, but Unai worked the miracle, he became great, he desperately covered the goal and the ball bounced off his left arm.